ebish ase US ONT B Ul ly betel N 47 
box, and while she tats an entire afternoon she sees no eggs destroyed, 
consequently declares that there is nothing but malicious lies in the whole 
story. Such zeal on the part of one investigator might provoke a smile 
if the subject were not so serious; but those of us who for twenty to 
fifty years have studied thoroughly and carefully the life of the House 
Wren know the difficulty of catching him red-handed. More often than 
otherwise the detection comes accidentally. Fingerprints are deemed 
trustworthy evidence against the human criminal. One “fingerprint” 
of this wren is the dropping of the egg, its contents uneaten, outside the 
nest; but this evidence is lacking at times. It may be said, in brief, that 
the collecting of evidence is not rapid work; it takes years, yes, years. 
A man who begins this work today, possibly, may know as much a score 
of years hence as does the man who began twenty years ago, but no more. 
However, it is very doubtful if he will know as much, since he begins 
in a world crowded with House Wrens, whereas the other man-had a 
nearly wrenless background. And will the word of the beginner of today 
be any more reliable than the words of the eminent men who have 
spoken erstwhile? 
The word of a truthful, competent, observant man can be trusted 
seemingly about most things, but not about the destruction done by 
the House Wren. He may tell of a dozen or more things seen in this 
wren’s life that very few besides himself have ever witnessed, and all 
his statement will be accepted if he does not mention the menace of the 
wren to other bird life; on this subject he can not be trusted. It is not 
because the menace is a new idea to them nor because its workings 
have not been seen by them that they are obstinate, for they readily 
accept new truths about things that they have not seen, such as state- 
ments about vitamins, endocrine imbalance, sex-linked inheritance, 
chromosomes, the atomic world, and relativity. 
Were a criminal belonging to the human race on trial, had his trial 
dragged along for many years during which he had time and again 
been confronted by the testimony of witnesses who were expert, com- 
petent, and veracious, it is certain that public sentiment would demand 
that a verdict be given and a sentence be passed. In the case of the 
felonious House Wren have not numerous jurymen pronounced him 
guilty? Capital punishment has not been demanded, though if no steps 
are taken to stop his unrestricted breeding it is safe to predict that the 
time will come when all true bird lovers will wring his neck as cheerfully 
as they now wring the neck of the pestiferous English Sparrow. By no 
means is it asked that the death penalty be exacted; instead of that 
drastic measure a mild sentence is urged—merely that the wren-boxes 
be taken down, thereby returning this wren to the place in nature that 
he occupied before man’s interference destroyed the natural balance. 
In order that this restoration be not short-lived it is hoped there may 
come a true appreciation of his disposition, so that no one will suffer a 
