had to wait in the vestibule, to have these pests brushed 
from their dresses ; they were thick on the pavements and 
streets, and, at that time, we would gladly have paid a large 
sum to have been rid of them. Fifteen hundred English 
sparrows were liberated one Spring ; they made themselves 
at home, and the next year our plague was perceptibly 
diminished, and so from year to year, until within the last 
five or six years we have no more caterpillars than are 
found at other places, and now they are no great annoy- 
ance. 
Despite this fact, sparrows are abused here as elsewhere, 
and often I have seen it stated in our local papers, that they 
have never been seen eating a caterpillar ; true, they have 
not, yet they are seen every day, in season, and hundreds of 
times during a day, if one will watch them, catching and 
eating the white moth that lays the millions of eggs from 
which the caterpillar Is hatched ; they do not kill one at a 
time, but by eating the moth, they destroy millions upon 
millions of caterpillars everyday. No doubt they also eat 
grain and fruit, but the workman is worthy of his hire ; 
after the season for this moth and other insects is over they 
must eat something else, and they do ; but if all understood 
and appreciated the great good these energetic, little work- 
ers have done, few if any persons would begrudge them 
the pay they have so well earned, or object to their eating 
some grain and fruit until moth and insect time comes 
again. Let even the English sparrow have fair play ; let 
the truth be told about him, give the little fellow his due. 
Jno. H. Ward. 
At*.. 'h\ed.. Mix, .WvW—- « 
i/ o Camden, New Jebsey. 
- Editor American Field: — In the American Field of 
June 2, you published a number of very interesting articles 
on the English sparrow, especially these of I. W. E. Clark 
and F. Malcolm. I quite agree with everything they have 
written, and thought I would give my opinion of this little 
bird, which I consider quite a nuisance. A few days ago 
one of my farm hands called my attention to an attack that 
was being made by a lot of sparrows upon an American eagle 
a pair of which had been living upon my farm, near by, for 
a number of years. These little birds, the spairows, would 
dart up under the body of the eagle, while others would 
strike at his eyes. After some time the larger bird seemed 
■weary with the annoyance of his little tormenters; the 
persistent and long continued attack caused him to alight in 
a tall pine tree, when his mate, the female, came to his as- 
sistance. No sooner did she make her appearance than 
they attacked her with great fury, and she tiied to beat a re- 
treat. The sparrows were now reinforced by quite a num- 
ber of others, and soon divided into two squads. They then 
simultaneously attacked both eagles with fury. The male 
bird began to soar higher and higher, until the sparrows 
were lost sight of for some minutes; finally he gradually 
came down nearer the earth until we could see these little 
birds still at work upon the body of the bird of freedom. 
He at last alighted in the pine tree where the attack was 
made at his head, and in a few minutes the poor eagle fell 
dead at the foot of the tree, his eyes des royed, and the brain 
punctured by the bites .of the sparrows. The female flew 
away out of sight, but we presume met with the same fate. 
William Poor Paresinoer. 1/ ,.- 
