478 



SCIENCE. 



[YoL. VI., No. 147. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



♦*♦ Correspondents are requested to he as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The English sparrow. 



This bird seems to be on trial for its life before the 

 American people. The charges against it are so in- 

 definitely and loosely stated, that a cautious judge 

 would be obliged to rule out a very large part of them. 

 The bird is charged with many misdemeanors — such 

 as tyrannizing over our native birds, and driving them 

 from our home grounds, gardens, etc., to our great 

 loss and damage ; to leaving the insects which they 

 were imported to destroy largely unmolested ; to 

 robbing our grain-fields and storage-houses ; to be- 

 fouling our roofs, rain-gutters, pipes, and walls of 

 buildings, to the entire destruction of our rain-water 

 supplies, etc. Words of praise are few and far be- 

 tween. The fact is, it has got a bad name, and with 

 the usual result, — every one is ready to cast a stone at 

 it, whether he knows any thing against or for it. 



Whether the object of its importation — the destruc- 

 tion of worms and insects in the city parks — was a 

 success or failure, I know not. My impression from 

 the general reports is, that it is largely, if not entirely, 

 a failure. 



The sparrow is an active, hardy, and persevering 

 bird ; it has already possession of the New England, 

 the middle, and the western states to the Rocky 

 Mountains, and perhaps of the southern. From 1870 

 to 1872 I saw them in possession of the towns of the 

 Missouri River valley, from Kansas City, north to 

 Omaha. Probably the lower valley to St. Louis was 

 occupied before this, as St. Louis had been previously 

 occupied. Whether they had progressed then north 

 from Omaha, I do not know. 



Mr, Ralph S. Tarr, in Science (vi. 416), says, ''In 

 the southern and western states, beyond the Missis- 

 sippi River, the bird has not been observed." This is 

 a mistake so far as the western states are concerned, 

 and may be for the southern. I saw them also in 

 1873 in Lincoln, Nebraska, 55 miles west of the 

 Missouri River, and in Denver, Col., in 1883. 



They seem to follow the great thoroughfares of 

 transportation, probably attracted by the scattered 

 grains upon the roads. In 1876 I saw them on the 

 Chicago and north-western railroad, in Iowa, mov- 

 ing westward ; and in 1883 moving northward 

 above St. Joseph, on the Kansas City, St. Joseph, and 

 Council Bluffs railroad. 



The bird seems to have a marked preference for 

 cities and large towns, probably from the greater 

 abundance of its favorite food, the grains scattered 

 in the offal of the great thoroughfares and about 

 grain warehouses. Exceedingly social and gregarious, 

 it selects the eave trough-pipes, cornices, and angles 

 of the higher and larger buildings of these thorough- 

 fares, for its retreats, nests, etc. It seems to care but 

 little for trees or shrubbery, the common resort of 

 our native birds : hence they seldom come in collision. 

 From 1869 to 1882, my residence at Plattsmouth, 

 Nebraska, and grounds, were embowered with trees 

 and shrubbery, and the grounds were the resort of 

 large numbers of our native birds. The sparrows 

 were thick upon the streets, but I never saw one in- 

 side of the grounds, or interfering with the native 

 birds. Since 1882, at Kansas City, under like sur- 

 roundings, the same results obtain. 



As an insectivorous bird, I know nothing of them, 

 but presume that when grain fails they may resort to 

 insects. Have you not in the east, where the birds 



must now be much more numerous, and their habits 

 more fully developed, many witnesses who can tell 

 us what they know rather than what they do not 

 know ? The public would then be prepared to sit in 

 judgment on the accused. Will not such witnesses 

 give your readers this evidence through the columns 

 of Science f 



But now suppose this evidence adverse to the bird, 

 and judgment of extermination follows. How is this 

 sentence to be carried into execution ? Shall it be by 

 shooting ? A survey of the field and a little consider- 

 ation make this appeal a large undertaking ; not 

 unlike the extermination of the swarms of locusts 

 which invade us — or even the flies and mosquitoes — 

 by shooting. Tbe idea is absurd. How will poison 

 operate in the case ? But a few moments' consider- 

 ation will show the vast dimensions of this undertak- 

 ing : first, the invention and preparation of a 

 poison in such form as to induce the bird to prefer 

 and take it in place of its own natural and accus- 

 tomed food, if this can be done ; then the millions of 

 miles of area over which this preparation must be 

 distributed to insure success, for by this time the bird 

 must be assumed to be spread over the entire country, 

 east and west, south and north, embracing Canada as 

 well as the entire Pacific coast, involving the action 

 of different governments. 



Again, suppose this feat accomplished. What will 

 be the effect of such a mass of poison on the entire 

 life of the country, human as well as animal ? And 

 may we not stop here, and leave poison as among the 

 absurd ideas ? 



The condemned sparrow seems to be entire master 

 of the position ; and can we not imagine it, in the 

 slang phrase of the day, asking us, ' Well, what are 

 you going to do about it ? ' A. L. Child, M.D, 



Kansas City, Nov. 17, 



Stepniak's * Russia under the czars.* 



In Science, No. 142, you reviewed Stepniak's 

 ' Russia under the czars.' I wonder that the 

 author's real name is not known to you. It is 

 Krawtschinsky, the murderer of Mesentzof (1878). 

 A person of that sort has, I think, no right to com- 

 plain that his friends are kept in confinement, and 

 prevented from committing new crimes. A lie is 

 certainly a very little offence in comparison to what 

 he did and advocates ; and lies are freely resorted to 

 by that author on the old plan, ' Calomniez, il en 

 restora toujours quelque chose.'' Now, besides, such 

 a kind of lie pays well in England as sensational, as 

 well as answering to the hatred of a considerable 

 number of the higher and middle classes in England. 

 How freely lies must be indulged in is shown by the 

 statement you reprint, that the fortress of Peter and 

 Paul is known as the place from which Krapotkine 

 escaped. Now, this is a lie. Krapotkine was able to 

 escape only because, on account of his real or sup- 

 posed illness, he was transferred to a hospital. 



As to cruelties perpetrated in the fortress, nobody 

 who is not blinded by party spirit believes in them 

 here, and this on account of the fact that until 

 recently (1880) the prisoners could freely exchange 

 letters with their friends by the aid of bribed 

 guards ; so much so, that Nitchayef conducted from 

 his prison a great deal of the nihiUst plots. Any 

 cruelty inflicted on prisoners would be known in that 

 way, but there is none except solitary confinement. 



A. WOEIKOF. 



St. Petersburg, Nov. 7. 



