THE SPARROW— FOR AND AGAINST. 43 
argument or fact of importance on either side. We have, how- 
ever, left out the protests made by more than one writer against 
the language used by the Rev. F. O. Morris with regard to Mr. 
Aubrey Edwards. In these protests we entirely concur, and it 
was wth considerable hesitation that we allowed Mr. Morris’s 
strictures to appear. We hope that our correspondents will 
remember that strong language is not necessarily an evidence 
of forcible argument, and that it was a “ weak case ” which 
elicited the advice : — “ Abuse the plaintiffs attorney.” — Ed.] 
As I have been a close observer of the habits of birds from 
my earliest childhood until now — a term of considerably over 
half a century — may I be allowed to make a few remarks 
regarding the sparrow ? That he is a very pugnacious bird 
everybody knows. In “ A Chronicle of London,” 1367-1370, 
among other matters noted, is : — “ Also in this yere was grete 
and stronge batailes of sparroes in Engelond in diverses 
places, whereof the bodyes were founden in the feldes dede 
%vithoughte nombre.” And this fighting propensity seems 
to have lasted until now. In Mr. Morris’s British Birds (p. 
273) he describes how one or more attacked successfully a 
blackbird, }"et in his reply to Mr. Edwards (p. 9), he says : 
“ But never once have I known him interfere with one of those 
other birds, except in the case of a few martens’ nests [italics 
mine] , and this only some three times in ten times three years 
or more, nor even then were these driven away, they only built 
other nests.” This may be so, but when martens are late hatched 
they are often unable to migrate. This I have observed. 
Further, I know several localities where martens used to 
build under the eaves of old farm houses, barns, and sheds, and 
I have found that the sparrows had driven aU the martens away, 
and now there does not exist a single nest where I used to see 
numbers when the farmers had sparrow-clubs in the neighbour- 
hood. I visited a friend last year who told me the sparrows had 
driven away all his martens. Last year, also, when at East 
Grinstead, I saw four nests of martens in the front of one house. 
As I took a pleasure in watching the habits of the birds, I spenE 
much time doing so. I saw, to my great annoyance, in spite oh 
my throwing stones at them, the sparrows take possession of two 
of the nests and cast out the eggs — one set being partly hatched. 
I might largely add to the foregoing evidence, but space is 
limited. By the way, I must mention that I put up two boxes 
close to my window for the starlings to build in, so that I could 
have them under close observation. They took to these boxes, 
built their nests, when one day I saw a cock sparrow looking 
out of one. He went in and then began to turn out the nests 
and some eggs of the starlings, being helped by two hens. 
The starlings came back and fought them, but after awhile the 
sparrows conquered, and the starlings were driven off, and then 
to my astonishment the sparrows built two nests, one in each box. 
