94 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
Corresponb^nce. 
The Persecution of the English Spar- 
rows. 
Ed. Young Scientist.— A most uncalled for and 
cruel war against the En^2:lish sparrows is 
now in progress in almost every part of the 
United States. This war is based in general 
upon the following beliefs : 
1st. That they destroy the crops. 
2nd. That they drive away all birds not be- 
longing to their own species. 
Thefirsi: belief is in part probably true ; but 
if it was not for the English sparrows would tlie 
farm^ers have any crops to destroy V How was 
it in New York before the English sparrows 
were introduced into that city ? When worms 
of all descriptions hung from the branches of the 
trees and dropped on passers by, in like manner 
would the farmers' crops be treated, and what 
little damage the English spari-ows do to the 
farmers' crops are amply repaid by the myriads 
of insects, worms, etc., which they daily de- 
stroy. I was reading some time ago a piece in 
a paper in which the following declaration was 
made. I do not remember the exact words, but 
it was very much as follows: "The English 
sparrow not being an insectivorous bird in the 
country from which it was imported, it is 
hardly to be supposed that it will change to an 
insectiverous bird in this country." The writer 
of this piece must have been a fool or an idiot, 
as the English sparrow has already proved 
itself an insectivorous bird in more than one 
way. 
We will now take the second and most ridicu- 
lous belief Avhich a number of very well-mean- 
ing folks possess, and that is that the English 
sparrows drive away all other birds except its 
own species. This belief is both untrue and 
unjust. I have often seen English sparrows 
fighting among themselves, but very seldom 
have I seen them destroying birds of any other 
species, while it is a very common thing to see 
blue-birds, wrens, cat-birds, robins, etc., fight- 
ing among themselves, each species endeavor- 
ing to drive the other species away. 
The following is an extract of a piece which 
appeared in the Ogdenshurg Journal of May 31, 
1882, and which was reprinted in the New York 
Times of June 2nd. " The sparrow is the most 
valuable of all birds. While breeding he feeds 
his young with grubs, flies, insects, bugs, and 
caterpillars. He is noisy and social, perhaps a 
little too much so. All the stories about the 
pugnacity of this bird are false. Any one who 
has observed the species enough to distinguish 
the sexes, will, by a little close observation, dis- 
cover how much he has been deluded about the 
I fighting sparrow." I have written this piece 
with the hope that the English sparrows may 
find more favor in the eyes of at lea^t the rea- 
ders of the Young Scientist. 
Alexandee G. Gibbs. 
The Parasol Ant. 
A correspondent from the London Field, 
writing from the Island of Trinidad, W. I., 
says: 
" We were about returning to the boat when 
one of Mr. B.'s sons, who had been some little 
distance away from us sauntering about in the 
bush, called to me to come back, and, on going 
to where he was, he pointed to what seemed a 
broad band of moving leaves right across the 
path, and, on looking more closely, I saw we 
had met with one of those enormous swarms of 
the ' parasol ants,' which are so destructive to 
plantations in the tropics, 
"They were crossing from one side of the 
wood to the other, and were traveling in a col- 
umn of more than a foot and a half in width ; 
and as each insect carried in its mouth a piece 
of leaf, which entirely covered the body, they 
presented a singular appearance, like a Lillipu- 
tian grove in motion; and, although we watched 
them for some time, still they came, their num- 
bers seeming to be inexhaustible. 
"Nothing can turn them from their course; 
and although they be destroyed by the thous- 
ands, enough will swarm upon the intruder to 
make Tiim repent interfering with them. On 
the mainland of South America I have known a 
fruit tree stripped in a single night by a swarm 
of these ants." 
Fishing for R-ats. 
A novel mode of catching rats is thus de- 
scribed in the American Angler. The writer 
says that a person having the patience of most 
fishermen can have much sport in hooking the 
vermin. 
The warehouse adjoining his place of busi- 
ness is infested by these " file-tails," and our 
friend may be seen in the early spring, and late 
fall, on an occasional evening just after dusk, 
seated at the back window of his counting room 
(overlooking the yard of the warehouse), with 
an ordinary rod in hand, strong linen line, and 
a spring hook, commonly called a " sockdol- 
ager," baited with a lump of fresh beef, pa- 
tiently waiting for a bite. It does not tarry 
long nor does it consume itself in nibbles, but 
with a hungry snap the bait is seized and the 
hooks of the sockdolager impales the rat, when 
the excitement commences. 
A lusty rat is no mean antagonist at the end 
