852 
HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Oy ES ee 
yet they do not do it by force, nor do they: 
entirely drive them away. The writer, 
as he sits in contemplation of this sub- 
ject, looks out before him, and directly op- 
posite his window in the Smithsonian 
Building, at a magnificent elm-tree, in 
which an orchard oriole, a summer war- 
ENGLISH SPARROWS, 
bler, and the sparrow in question are re- 
spectively rearing their young. The for- 
mer has woven its peculiar nest high in 
the top of the upper limbs; the warbler 
has knit its tiny couch at the extreme end 
of a long swaying middle branch; while 
the sturdy Pyrgita has taken possession 
of a snug little box nailed low down and 
close to the trunk of the tree. It travels 
with unremitting diligence to and fro 
with food for its noisy young, while the 
song-birds above seem to come and go at 
comparatively rare intervals on the same 
errands. But while it is plain that the 
sparrows in no way physically whatever 
molest the warbler or the oriole, yet it is 
equally apparent that the incessant harsh 
chirp and chatter of the foreigners de- 
press the spirits of the natives to such an 
extent that they are seldom heard to ex- 
ercise their own charming powers of min- 
strelsy. 
Still it should be borne in mind that 
our blackbirds in the country tease and 
torment the gentler thrushes and the rob- 
ins, that the kingbirds worry the doves, 
and that more or less offensive individ- 
uality is the rule always in animal life 
when the stronger or the aggressive en- 
counter the weaker or more retiring ex- 
amples of their kind. 
So, in summing up the charge for the 
public, we can not find just ground upon 
which to remove the sparrow from our 
cities, where its energetic little life enliv- 
ens the toil of the smoke-begrimed labor 
of those corporations; but we do think 
that beyond this zone of existence the 
sparrow ceases to be a fair object for pres- 
ervation, and we believe that free action 
should be given to the residents of the 
suburbs and the country to deal with the 
mischievous flocks as they deem best; in 
other words, to let them stand or fall 
upon their own merits, just as we do with 
our native species not known to the law 
as game. No sensible man will wage 
war upon the birds in his garden, fields, 
or orchard; if he knows anything at all 
about them, he knows that they strike a 
balance with him at the close of the sea- 
son greatly in his favor; but there are 
times, exceptional occasions, when it is 
not only justifiable, but it is necessary, to 
use powder and shot for the protection of 
some special crop, and when these occa- 
sions arise, the observer will notice, if he 
lives near the city, that he has not only 
sparrows to deal with, but he has as much 
or even greater fault to find with the rob- 
ins, the orioles, the woodpeckers, and 
scores of other winged marauders. The 
inability to resist the temptation of ca- 
rousing among the rich red or black elus- 
ters of fruit on a cherry-tree, or of sam- 
pling the aromatic fruit of the vine as it 
hangs in blue, black, and amber-toned 
masses on the vines in September, is not 
a sin peculiar to this bird of the town by 
any means: it is shared by nearly all of 
its feathered relatives, be they high or 
low, and their name is legion. 
