672 ENGLISH SPARROWS. 
Mr. John Strouse of Chestnut Hill, a careful observer of the 
habits of birds, a taxidermist by occupation, informs me that in 
all his experience, which has been a very long one, he never met 
a species which, for size, displayed such pugnacity and persistent 
pertinacity during the breeding period, as the house sparrow. 
Instances of these unenviable traits have repeatedly come under 
his immediate observation. There are localities, he affirms, known 
to him, where the robin, sparrows and blue bird, were wont 
to breed every spring, except the last, in great numbers. This 
neglect of accustomed sites he attributes to the quarrelsome 
nature of the sparrows. Upon the property of Mr. John Butler 
of Germantown, the smaller native species were always to be dis- 
cerned in large numbers during the season of nidification, but 
now the English house sparrows have taken their places; the 
former were absolutely driven away, as he had ocular demonstra- 
tion of the fact. 
It is true that the birds have been of immense service in ridding 
our squares of the caterpillars which were once so prevalent and 
so annoying to persons of delicate nerves and refined tastes. 
Had our city authorities years ago, by a wise regulation, pro- 
vided for the removal of the squirrels, and encouraged many © 
our smaller insectivorous birds to build, by erecting suitable boxes 
for their accommodation, and imposing the severest penalty upon 
any who should molest them, there is no doubt that we should haye 
been saved the expense of importation and the repugnance which 
possesses some of us at witnessing the banishment of many of our 
most common species. Our smaller birds, once placed in out 
squares and unmolested, would, in course of time, come to regard 
such localities as their permanent homes, and, year after year 
would revisit them under the spur of past associations. Innumer- 
able instances might be cited to prove that birds are frequently 
so strongly attached to particular localities, that they yisit them 
every season unless driven away perforce. Such being the cas® 
why could not our squares be rendered so attractive to our 
smaller insectivorous birds that they would come to regard them 
as their homes during their sojourn with us? They could and 
the presence of the sparrows be dispensed with. 
[We printed Dr. Coues note with much reluctance, believing that the introduction of the 
English Sparrow was an unmixed good. We make room for Mr. Gentry’s reply, mber of this 
refer our readers to Mr. Gould’s note on the English Sparrow in the present nu 
Eps.) 
