I 12 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
season 1 have been informed of a place 
not ten miles from my house where 
many nested this year. Next spring we 
shall see. I look forward to the com- 
ing of the greatest of all seasons with 
keener joy than ever. — The Oologist. 
Good Work By Our Game Warden. 
Mr. Wilbur F. Smith is ever on the 
watch for transgressors of the game 
and bird laws. One would suppose 
that his duties would lie almost wholly 
within the domain of game birds but. 
SONG BIRDS TAKEN FROM TWO ITALIANS AT 
WILTON, CONNECTICUT. 
strange to say, he has ever to keep 
watch against the slaughter of our 
beautiful song birds. The accompany- 
ing illustration shows twenty such that 
he took from two Italians at Wilton, 
Connecticut. The list includes eight 
robins, four catbirds, four flickers, two 
jays, one thrasher, one woodpecker. 
In Behalf of the English Sparrow. 
BY THEODORE II. COOPER, BATAVIA, N. Y. 
Sparrows, swallows and crows are 
my favorite birds, but when I look over 
the current nature magazines I find 
little said about them. This seems 
strange as they are common birds and 
have become like old friends. 
I find that most bird lovers are never 
weary of exalting the more brightly 
colored and rarer forms, but as I have 
seldom seen such they are not so in- 
teresting to me. 
To the real naturalist it is painful to 
hear such expressions as, “There is 
only one bird we hate. There is only 
one bird we take pleasure in killing. 
Bird lovers will doubtless recognize the 
English sparrow as the despised spe- 
cies.” Indeed! And why so? I fail 
to recognize any species as despicable. 
I put up several feeding places and 
boxes outside my laboratory window 
last year, and sparrows were the prin- 
cipal part of my bird visitors. I took 
particular pains to ascertain whether 
or not they would drive away other 
birds, but according to my observation 
they molested no bird that cared to 
come. If it had not been for the spar- 
rows, my bird visitors would have been 
few, for the others are wild and timid, 
and therefore less familiar and friendly. 
There are those who like to go 
abroad with a high power telescope to 
see some scarlet and yellow bird “to 
get notes on,” as they say, but the com- 
mon, everyday natural object is good 
enough for me. 
The naturalist need not go south to 
see Canopus while he has not yet seen 
Alcor. One star will furnish ample 
material for his imagination, but the 
idle curiosity seeker will not be satis- 
fied until he has pointed his telescope 
at the sun without the sun glass, and 
got his eyes burnt. 
Those who are honestly interested 
in geology will not be so concerned 
about the great museums’ collections 
of fossils as they are about the under- 
lying structure of their own landscape, 
and the forces which have produced it. 
The fragment of a fossil protruding 
from a rock will be as interesting to 
them as a skull of Triceratops. 
Those who scorn the English spar- 
rorv evidently have not heard that, 
“The dear God who loveth us. He made 
and loveth all.’’ 
Much of the bird plumage now sold 
in the stores and alleged to have been 
imported before the present law for- 
bade such importation is probably 
smuggled. Many bird lovers are re- 
ported to be refusing to trade at places 
where such feathers are carried. 
