6 
NATURK vSTUDY. 
The English Sparrow. 
Mr. C. William Beebe, Curator of Ornithology for the 
New York Zoological Society, in a recent interview in the 
Neiv York Tribu7ic^ had the following to say of the mnch- 
discnssed English sparrow ; 
A great many people say they love nature, but have lit¬ 
tle time to go into the country, and so have to depend on 
books for most of their information concerning Ijirds and 
flowers and other forms of life. There is no reason, how¬ 
ever, why any one should not begin to cultivate his pow¬ 
ers of observation even in the heart of a great city. Let 
us take the sparrow, for example, and see how much we 
can learn in a few minutes. Most of us probably know the 
difference between the male and female English sparrows, 
but I will venture to say that not one in ten persons could 
give a satisfactory description of the colors of either. This 
is a good example of how much we look and how little we 
really see, 
Eittle can be said in favor of the English sparrows’ char¬ 
acteristics of disposition, but let us not blame them for 
their unfortunate increase in numbers. Man brought them 
from England, where they are kept in check by nature’s 
wise laws. He deliberately introduced these birds where 
nature was not prepared for them, with the result that our 
native birds and the tempers of our citizens suffer. If we 
can learn anything from watching these “ rats of the air,” 
as they have been called, let us improve the opportunity. 
When we put aside prejudice we can see that the male 
bird, especially when in his bright .spring colors, is really 
very attractive, with his a.shy gray head, his back streaked 
with black and bay, the white bar on his wings and the chin 
and throat jet black, contrasting strongly with the uniform- 
13 ^ light colored hinder parts. If this was a rare bird the 
