Passer donest icus . 
i 
j 
! 
I 
Cambridge , 
1899. 
J anuary . 
Mass. January birds in The Garden. 
The canny English Sparrows, bountifully supplied with 
bread crumbs from the kitchen in addition to such grain as 
they could pilfer from the Pigeons (they not only entered a 
wire-enclosed yard for this purpose but a few of the bolder 
ones even ventured into the pigeon loft over my study) regard- 
ed the suet at first with a mixture of indifference and sus- 
picion but when the native birds began to partake of it freely 
they gathered close about and watched them with grave atten- 
tion. At length - on January 22nd - having satisfied them- 
selves by repeated observations that the suet was neither poi- 
soned nor the bait of some hidden snare they attacked the 
piece in the elm coming to it singly or in small parties the 
members of which, clustering over it like bees, feasted greed- 
ily. Although they often quarrelled with one another I could 
not discover that they ever molested or even threatened the 
native birds. Nevertheless the Creepers and Woodpeckers 
either disliked or distrusted them for neither species would 
approach the suet when a Sparrow was on it nor would either 
continue eating when one came very near. 
i 
