V! 
** 
.B 
— 2 . 
can be taken against sapsuckers w iich will not endanger the* 
lives of any other birds. Go far we have failed to find such 
measures ourselves. 
j must admit that the services of the seed-eating birds 
fall far short of the complete eradication of weeds. Your ar- 
S ument 13 sound » so far as it goes, and your statement 
is perfectly J>rue that there are seeds enough left to cover 
the ground. You will find that some of the Biological .Survey 
men are practically in agreement with you, and I would call 
your attention in this connection to pages 414 and 415 of the 
Jui y f'&k . .But the question is what would happen if all seed- 
eating b tr o.a could be enlisted in the aid of the farmer, and 
mi-uit they no t have a decided effect in limiting the number of 
, c . eO 
weeas. jl course thei-s* complete extermination is not to be 
n 
throught of. Consider for a moment that the turtle dove, the 
quail, the prairie chicken and the turkey have practically been 
exterminated in large sections of the country where, if they 
were allowed to increase unchecked or even if they were fairly 
protected, they would be of very material assistance in this 
work. That the sparrows alone are inadequate to the work is 
pen ectly evident, and I freely admit it, though I am not pre¬ 
pared to go so far as to say that while they destroy vast quantr 
ides of weeds they are of no use to the farmer whatever ( simply 
because they don’t destroy all of them. 
Very truly yours, 
Chi ^r-^dtxrgi caThSurvey. 
