1881.| Zoblogy. 393 
search to the soundest buds, is a question which we will not 
attempt to decide.” : 
The thorough examination of the food and food habits of the En- 
glish sparrow which is certain to result from the intense and univer- 
sal interest the little stranger has awakened, will give us a mass of 
valuable facts for comparison with those accumulated in Europe, 
where the debate concerning the good and evil of its life has been 
vigorous and long-continued. We shall thus be able to trace 
much more fully and exactly, than has ever yet been done, the 
effects of widely changed conditions upon the alimentary regimen 
of a bird. 
and often shoot-them. One enterprising legislator even tried to geta 
law passed, offering a bounty for their wholesale destruction. 
of these birds, which from some cause or other had remained 
with us. Below a neighboring mill dam the water flowed Aw 
making a small brook. These birds were wading about in the 
