BY TIIE WAYSIDE 
43 
writer was awakened at his lakeside 
I esort by the pattering of birds on the 
! oof of the bungalow between 4:30 
1 nd 6:00 in the morning, noise enough 
o awaken the whole household. Inas- 
nuch as early rising on several pre- 
f nous mornings had awarded him a 
; dew of flicker rattling his bill on the 
in capping of a nearby chimney, he 
lecided to find out if this same wood¬ 
pecker was making the present distur- 
)ance on the wooden roof. After some 
1 'allures he was able to surprise the 
>irds in question, and discovered that 
hey were English sparrows foraging 
or these midges all along the ridge 
>ole, but more especially was he 
imused to see them leaning over the 
)orcli eaves and pulling in mouthfuls 
)f these spider web ropes loaded with 
nidges. In watching them peck along 
j'die ridge pole, it was estimated by the 
! second hand of a watch that the rate 
of pecking was about 22 times in 10 
i seconds and as the birds kept con- 
I stantly at work, this would equal about 
130 midges per minute. Another rec- 
I ord was that of a female which made 
about 25 separate pecks in ten seconds 
or at the rate of 150 midges per minute. 
Most of the birds, however, seldom ex¬ 
ceeded 15 to 20 seconds steady work 
before they changed positions. These 
observations which are supplemented 
by the previously heard noises of the 
birds pattering over the roof at early 
hours on so many mornings, must 
speak favorably for the bird’s retain- 
ment of its insectivorous habits. As 
the birds were brought to America 
partly to gobble up the canker worms 
i of our eastern orchards, and as they in 
j turn began to neglect pests in the or¬ 
chards, their value has considerably 
depreciated in the popular mind. The 
insects mentioned are not of great 
economic importance but it is likely 
that widespread observations through¬ 
out the country will show the bird still 
reverts more or less to its native trait 
of eating insects. 
Grain Stealing. —S. Gaye, 1893, (The 
Great World’s Farm, London), gives 
some interesting notes on sparrows, 
position in the old world. They are 
accused of stealing corn and fruit, and 
destroying crocuses to get the un¬ 
formed seeds. Sparrow clubs encour¬ 
aged by the farmers, kill him by the 
thousands and destroy his nests. In 
contrast, some naturalists say a spar¬ 
row saves one bushel of corn in 9 
months of the year by the grubs he 
eats, one pair taking 4300 grubs and 
other insect pests to their young in 
one week. 
On August 1, 1912, the writer saw 
bronzed grackles and English sparrows 
in company, raiding a rye field at W. 
II. Black’s farm, north of Ft. Atkinson 
on the river road. I would not care to 
make an estimate of the amount of 
grain taken in the parts of the field 
where the birds settled, but it was very 
noticeable to even a casual observer. 
Extermination— Mr. Charles Tesch 
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has told me 
that the Government formula for pois¬ 
oning sparrows by strychnine soaked 
wheat was too weak. In his opinion, 
2 drams of strychnine in 2 ounces of 
boiling water will break into the finest 
of white powder, which is easily held 
in suspension. 1 tablespoonful of 
starch dissolved in some separate 
water so as to make a jelly is then 
mixed with it, and wheat added to use 
up the poison applied as a smear on 
the outside of the kernels. Dry thor- 
(Continue$ on p. kh) 
