948 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



rected toward manipulating the play so 

 that the seeds are accumulated on one 

 side, leaving the other player with none. 

 An important factor is the ability to 

 properly estimate an opponent's skill ; an 

 elaborately planned campaign may be 

 entirely frustrated by unexpected stu- 

 pidity on the part of an opponent, as 

 well as by superior skill. 



The illustration on page 946 shows 

 two natives playing this favorite game. 

 The posture, which would be so uncom- 

 fortable to any European, is character- 

 istic and perfectly comfortable for these 

 natives. 



On first acquaintance this game may 

 seem childish, but as soon as a few 

 games have been played the possibilities 

 of strategy, feint, and decoy become ap- 

 parent and the game will be found 

 intensely interesting. The principle is 

 entirely different from that of either 

 draughts or chess, both of which depend 



on space relations, while kboo is entirely 

 arithmetical. Although different forms 

 of this game have been frequently de- 

 scribed in technical publications,* no 

 serious effort seems ever to have been 

 made to introduce this African game 

 among European people. 



The Golah ''headman," whose picture 

 is shown on page 947, was the most 

 skillful player I ever met. The long 

 rainy season of Liberia afforded ample 

 opportunity for practice, but as fast as 

 the moves of my Golah adversary were 

 mastered he inaugurated new methods, 

 before which I was equally helpless. 



* Lane, E. W. : Manners and Customs of the 

 Modern Egyptians, p. 315. 



Culin, S. : Mancala, The National Game of 

 Africa. Report U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1894 

 (1896), p. 597. 



Avelot, R. : Bull. Soc. dAnth., Paris, 1906, 

 pp. 267-271, and 1908, pp. 9-21. 



Golberry : Fragment d'un voyage en Af rique. 

 Paris, 1791, Vol. II, p. 480. 



THE PEST OF ENGLISH SPARROWS* 



By N. Dearborn 



THE English sparrow among birds 

 is comparable to the rat among 

 mammals. It is cunning, destruc- 

 tive, and filthy. This sparrow was intro- 

 duced into America about 60 years ago, 

 and is now distributed generally over the 

 eastern half of the United States and 

 southern Canada and locally westward 

 to the Pacific coast. This rapid increase 

 is a result of the bird's hardiness, extra- 

 ordinary fecundity, diversity of food, 

 aggressive disposition, and almost com- 

 plete immunity from natural enemies 

 through its sagacity and its preference 

 for thickly settled communities. 



Its natural diet consists of seeds, but 

 it eats a great variety of other foods. 

 While much of its annual fare consists 

 of waste material from the streets, in 

 autumn and winter it consumes quanti- 



ties of weed seed, and in summer numer- 

 ous insects. Aside from the destruction 

 of weed seed, there is very little to be 

 said in the sparrow's favor. 



It destroys small fruits, as cherries, 

 grapes, pears, and peaches. It also de- 

 stroys buds and flowers of cultivated 

 trees, shrubs, and vines. In the garden 

 it eats seeds as they ripen, and nips off 

 tender young vegetables as they appear 

 above ground, peas and lettuce being 

 especially subject to attack. It damages 

 wheat and other grains when newly 

 sowed, ripening, and in shocks. It re- 

 duces the numbers of some of our most 

 useful native species, such as bluebirds, 

 house wrens, purple martins, tree swal- 

 lows, cliff swallows, and barn swallows, 

 by destroying the eggs and young and 

 by usurping the nesting places. It at- 



* Abstracted from "How to Destroy English Sparrows," by N. Dearborn. U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 383. 



