The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1879-05-22
The Danger Of a Sparrow.

The Danger Of q Sparrow.
The following resume of some state
ments made by DIR. Elliott COues, the
well known naturalist, in conversation
with correspondent of the New York
Ereniag Post, is worthy of serious con-
sideration
even in Europe, the sparrow's natu-
al home. it remains an unsOlved problem
whether these birds are to be classed
among the beautiful or harmful agen-
cies of nature, since they seem to devOur
insects only when they can't get garb-
age, grain or young green herbs to eat.
Removed from the natural checks upon
increase which surround bird in its
native land, and transplanted into a
new region where they were in the
midst of unnatural conditions, of course
all their strong traits become stronger,
and, like some other immigrants. they
have construed liberty to mean license,
and fully acted upon that theory. The
increase Of the sparrOws along the At
lantic coast has been enormous and their
dispersion very rapid; the whole East
is full Of them, and they are now over
flowing into the western States and Ter
ritOries. 1t is well known that outside
of city limits, these birds are fast be-
coming source of very serious mischief
devastating market gardens or flower
beds, and dishea: 'tening to the farmer.
Complaints are many and emphatic
and when DIR. Dixwell wrote from the
suburbs of Boston to DIR. Brewer, that
that i'm dissection Of the stOmachs Of
thirty-nine sparrows no insects were
found, he gave only single instance
out of many which prove that nature
intended sparrOws to be grain-eatins
birds.
'Thcre is no evidence that the inn
ported sparrow has had any apprecia-
BILE influence in producing the fortunate
disappearance Of the worms from the
shade trees in New York and other
eastern States. There is evidence, on
the contrary, that this radiance of the
pest is due almost wholly to causes con-
nectcd with the natural history Of the
insects themselves, and that the afiiic-
ton may be expected to repeat itself in
the course of certain number of years
the sparrow TO the contrary notwith-
standing. Meanwhile the birds outside
Of the crowded, bleak city thorough
fares. which their chatter does some.
thing to cnliven, are doing positive and
increasing injury in q multitude OF
ways.
at becomes therefore the duty of the
ornithologist, since it seems impractical
BILE to get rid of the noxious stranger in
his eastern stronghOlds, to warn those
districts where he has not yet become u
fixed inhabitant, against the evils which
we experience, and to see to il that the
sparrow is not allowed to secure further
foothOld. Farmers in the prairie States
have enough to do to contend with the
grasshoppcr scOurge, without having to
guard their crops a plague scarcely less
formidable and imminent. Should the
European sparrows become as abundant
and as widely difimsed In the west as
they are in the thickly settled parts of
the United States they will prove even
more destructive to the crops than they
are known to be in the east. For in
the east they still live for the most part
in the towns and villages, where they
derive most Of their subsistence from
street garbage: but in the west, where
such supplies are more limited, these
garnivorpus birds would ut once and
continuously prey upon the crops"
DIR. Coues thinks il is not yet too late.
II vigorous measures are taken at once.
to stamp out the plague beyond the Mis-
sissippi. The strongholds Of these birds
in the west are comparatively few and
isolated. The great plains offer q a nat
ural barrier to the westward progress
Of the birds from the Mississippi. and if
pains are taken 10 destroy the advance
guard as fast as they move westward,
the evils now suffered in the East may
be long delayed, or even avoided.
In most parts of the West where the
sparrows must have appeared, as Salt
Lake City, il is believed that they were
imported, not that they reached these |
spots by Spontaneous migration or nat
ural dispersion. This fact makes it not
altogether impracticable to attempt the
The method would be
to kill all the sparrows in the few towns
where they now exist-destroy the
whole colony, root and branch; and
then pass laws prohibiting the introduce
lion Of the birds into the Western States
md Territories. Such measures viii
secure immuaity for a very long time.
( not forever, provided constant vigi
ance against straggiers from the East
. exercised.