Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-19
LIVELY REVIEW OF THE SPAR.
ROW QUESTION.


Tor an outsider to enter upon the sparrow ques-
tiOn in your columns, for fear Of his being
ground between the upper and neither mill
stones of observing" advocates Of the bird aud
| scientific directors to him; but, perhaps, the
presentation of a lew thoughts and the review
of Others may serve a useful purpose in keeping
| up the interest we are compelled to feel in the
bird
But before proceeding further, it may be ap-
propriate to acknowledge the unprejudiced and
impartial information given by your correspond
ents. who generally hold the scales so evenly
that we are likely soon to know all about the
sparrow. On two points at least our minds may
rest easy: they are the relation that the English
sparrow bears TO the native American birds and
the relation ne bears to the elm tree. careful
perusal of The EVENING STAR has convinced Us i'm
reference to the former of these questions that
L. The sparrow has not driven away our own
Dirds, because there are more of the latter in
anu about Washington now than there were
thirty years ago. 2. There are NJ American
birds in and about Washington now because
they live in distant woods. 3. If we drive away
the English sparrow from Washington we will
also drive away the American birds. In the
next place. about the elm tree. l. Thanks to
the sparrow our elms are as thriving and beau
tiful as any elms, even those Of New Haven.
=. There is hardly green leaf in whole rows of
our elm trees because some wicked beetle per-
sists in eating all the green off the leaves, in
spite of
THE POOR OvERwORKED SPARROW.
But perhaps the most striking fact in the con-
| trOversy has been that after sparrow stock had
fallen considerably below par, and had rs down.
ward tendency as that of certain mines, some
individuals have lately plncked up courage to
defend the bird. land such very faint praise as
they condemn him With One gentleman sup
poses that as the sparrow was introduced into
Philadelphia to keep down the caterpillars and
as there are still trees and inhabitants in that
city, therefore. the sparrow is of some service
But perhaps the existence of trees n Philadel-
pnla Is due to the same causes as are at work
here in Washington where men armed with the
proper implements of their Office have made
three rounds in come eight mOnths-first to
clp on every pupa in sight, next to cut off the
twigs having perceptible nests on them. and
last to iop Off branches with their tens of thOus-
sands OF half-grOwn .aterpillars; and, Mr.. Edi-
tor it is high time for another round of men.
not sparrOws. beginning almost anywhere, say
on street, beyond 18th.
CONSERVING" THE SPARROW.
Another of your correspondents has not per-
ceived any scarcity of fruit or Of American birds
where he lives, and calls upon US to s.observe
the habits Of the sparrow before we condemn
him.
Now, what do observations show us?
medical gentleman writes from PHILADELPHIA
that caterpillars were never more numerous there
than they are this year, and adds: ''But they
are great deal better than the sparrows as
they don't begin chattering at dawn" From
PlttSburg comes the news that the Sparrows are
three times more dirty there than in Philadel-
phia. and are worse for house fronts than the
smoke. Professor Warren, of PENNSYLVANIA,
says he has observed" the nsides of sparrows
Almost excellent use to put them to. by the wav -
and that out OF five hundred which he dissected
ne found that hardly any had been insectiv-
otn 0rf oil "a
Warren has done WELL but we hope he will be
just and not stop at five hundred or at five hum
dred thousand, but perseyere in his good work;
perhaps in the course of a well spent life he will
meet With sparrow moved solely by ''cater-
plllary attraction" and that fact should set
other observers to search the insides of other
specimens for that rdrd aUiS, an insectivorouS
sparrow.
WHAT THE OLD ROMANS THOUGHT OF THE SPAR
ROW.
And this little bit of Latin reminds us of our
school days Didn't the old Romans call the
bird "Passer domesticus?' Passer to denote
him when caterpillar comes along for. whereas
his admirers affect to believe him little trump.
he invariably passes; and dona-esti-cus, a COM
pound qualifying phrase, the c,tss part of which
is evident: est, obsolete Latin for nasty and
dom. another cuss word. spelt nowadays. as
am informed, with q. But we have CLEAN of
hope even from Philadelphia that criminal
place Of it be true that sparrOws were first in
trOduced there); a recent writer states that the
caterpllars are driving the sparrows' nests from
their former hooks and corners and we have
noticed indications Of that fact in Washington
sparrow has recently fOrsaken the low and
easily accessible back porch and ivy green and
has betaken himself to the third story $50 to
speak) of certain maple tree, which will ne
cessitate our going fishing Gas it were) from
the roof Of our house when the law sanctions
his destruction. If any one had wished to
stock his Uncovered wall with caterpilars to
drive out the sparrows, the writer could easily
have spared the first kind of vermin last month.
In almost any numbers and OF almost any kind
green, yellow, brown and black; smooth, rough,
hairy and corrugated; ring -streaked, speckled
and spOtted-sO little have the sparrows almost
the only birds he ever sees now helped his gar
demand this caterpillar season has not been
very lively one, either.
One of your correspondents states that he has
observed" sparrOWs chasing butterflies. and
has actually seen them, caterpillar in beak
Truth cOmpels us unwillingly to confess that we
apparently saw both these phenomena, each
upon one occasion. but the sparrow didn't tool
Us either time. We felt intuitively, on the first
occasion. that the butterfly had. in passing,
made some gesture which the pugnaciOus SPAR
row took as challenge to fight; and in the
second case we looked carefully for the bird
from which the sparrow could have taken the
worm. and not seeing him. concluded of course,
that it was not a worm.
HOW HE BULLDOGS THE OTHER BIRDS
But the reckless apOlogists for sparrows deny
that he drives away American birds. A WASH
ington writer declares that he has seen (he
does not tell US how long ago) American birds
in some of our parks, and Sandy Spring gen.
tleman has observed" wrens, orioles, robins,
etc, and admonishes us Owe would like to take
his ADVICE TO observe some also. Now what
are the facts? Even from lover in New Jersey''
comes the wall that sparrows had entered a
martin-box, killed the young birds. driven away
the old ones. (perhaps the most insectiyorous
birds we have). and taken possession of the box.
In garden on Capitol Hill (and the same
thing has happened elsewhere in Washington
couple Of wrens used to return every year to
build in box set up for them, until lazy spar
row. wanting the box deliberately set himself
to have row with the wrens every time one
went into or came out OF the bOx;-being an
Engiishman the sparrow would perhaps say he
was "Ony chivvying Of him." Now the wren is
one OF tn most courageous of birds (this pair was
not much afraid OF the CATS, but they could not
stand the constant annoyance so they left us
and are evidently the ones now seen at Sandy
Spring. but, MIR. Editor, they won't STAY there.
nor will the gentleman who observes the beau
ties OF nature in that locality long enjoy his pres