BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



231 



thatch for native huts, showed the remains of great 

 beauty ; the spike of Oi'eodoria regia, the royal palm, 

 was greatly different. An immense rhizome of the fern 

 Poly-podium aiireum imbedded in the wood of a tree 

 showed the strength attained by epiphytal forms in the 

 tropics. There were many other ' ' curios, " horticultural 

 and otherwise, which were well worth study. Unfortu- 



nately, they were not labeled as they should have been, 

 or described in the catalogue which was sold. Plants of 

 Epidendrum bicoi'iiutum, the common orchid of Trini- 

 dad, were also shown; it can be very cheaply imported, 

 has pretty flowers, and would be an excellent species to 

 popularize orchids for house-culture — it will grow and 

 bloom in an ordinary living-room. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



, \One idea often suggests another. Here is a pa^e in which all readers are invited to express themselves regarding any matter that 

 has recently appeared in these columns. If you think you know better regarding some point than the writer of some recent article, or if 

 vou think you can forcibly confirm or add to some present or late statement in these columns, the Editor would be glad to hear from you 

 Many suck contributions would be welcome each month.'] 



The English Sparrow: Friend or Foe?— I have 

 been surrounded by sparrows for years. I have a cot- 

 tage surrounded by trees, and the house is covered on 

 two sides with Virginia creeper. Sparrows swarm in the 

 vines and trees by hundreds. About sundown in sum- 

 mer they set up such a chatter and chirping that all 

 passers-by stop and stare in wonder, and say, ' ' Don't they 

 annoy you ?" I have but one answer. They came so 

 gradually that I have got used to them, and in fact like 

 them ; and although they befoul the walks and fences to 

 some extent, I can overlook that for the sake of their 

 cheerful presence. I cannot see that they drive off other 

 birds — I seem to have the same number of jays, robins, 

 bluebirds and martins that I always had — but as the 

 negro shooters are constantly at work, they naturally 

 diminish slightly. I never see the sparrows quarreling 

 with other birds. They remain all winter, and give us 

 about all the bird-life we have at that season. I hardly 

 know what they subsist on ; they never hurt anything in 

 my garden. They like sunflower-seeds, and with this 

 exception they don't appear to molest anything. There- 

 fore I must give my verdict in favor of the English 

 sparrow. — M, M. S., loiua. 



One of Your Correspondents speaks of the English 

 sparrow as a " happy little scavenger, endeavoring to 

 pick up and consume the accumulated filth of our streets 

 and gutters." Is this bird really a scavenger, a remover 

 of filth ? It is true he is active in picking the undigested 

 grains and particles of food from the horse-droppings of 

 our streets, but instead of removing any filth he actually 

 spreads it, and distributes it over a greater surface. It 

 seems to me that he might better be called a distributer 

 and depositor of filth. I know of no native bird that 

 deposits so much filth about our dwellings and on our side- 

 walks. And no matter how plain a style of architecture 

 •we may adopt for our houses, he will find a foothold on 

 the roof, and by his deposits of filth there and in the 

 gutters, he will defile water which is conducted there- 

 from into our cisterns. For my part I prefer to dispense 

 with his services as scavenger, if I could thereby be free 

 from his defilements about my dwelling. It is not pleas- 

 ant to speak ill of birds. I believe that every bird has 

 some good qualities, some useful purpose in the world, 

 and that the amount of good we receive from them far 



exceeds the evil. Yet some birds, like some people, do 

 far more injury than they ought, and sometimes it be- 

 comes necessary to protect ourselves against their en- 

 croachments. I have observed one bad habit in the 

 sparrow. It destroys blackberries. If I could say it 

 eats them it would be more gratifying. If it would take 

 a blackberry and eat it up I would be willing to feed 

 quite a large flock, and make no complaint. But it 

 takes just a bite or two in one berry, then a bite in 

 another, and so on, destroying perhaps twenty berries in 

 making one meal, when two or three, if wholly devoured 

 would have been just as satisfactory to its appetite. In 

 self-defense I have been obliged to use powder and shot. 

 If there is any excuse in doing evil because others do, 

 the sparrows perhaps have this excuse — the orioles do 

 the same thing in the same way. I have suspected the 

 sparrows of destroying strawberries, but have not detect- 

 ed them in the act. — Chas. H. Peck, Albany Co., N. V. 



We have Sparrows on our farm, three miles from 

 any town, and they greatly annoy our women on wash- 

 days. The birds seem to delight in flying and fighting 

 above and about the full clothes-lines. They fight 

 among themselves to the death, and rob other bird's nests 

 of eggs and young, and drag down the nests. They have 

 driven away our bluebirds and martins, and are mak- 

 ing life a bunden to our little wrens. I have seen them 

 pull out young martins from the nest and kill them, time 

 and again ; I saw a pair of sparrows force an entrance 

 into a wren's home and take out a young wren and carry it 

 in the air a distance of eight feet, and drop it into a 

 barrel that had water in it. When I went to save the 

 little wren, I found six others already drowned in the 

 water-barrel. I have seen sparrows eat cherry-buds 

 and the buds of other trees many times. Their noise 

 now fills the air. — Wm. F. Nehring, Shelby Co., III. 



If allowed to breed and multiply in any place, the 

 sparrows soon reward farmers for their kindness by 

 stripping everything in the shape of grain from the 

 haulms for a rod or so next to ths fences or hedges. 

 They can get through a small hole into the granary on 

 the farm, and help themselves to the grain and build 

 their nests in every corner, leaving their droppings on 

 i^verything. For a change of diet I have seen them 

 light on the currant-bushes near spring and pick off the 



