Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-01-31

 ornithologists has taken evidence against the imported British sparrow and has in- dicted him as a nuisance. The committee reports that the sparrow is an impOStor a thief. and a murderer. and recommends that he be extermilated without further delay.
 The story of the sparrowS crimes is a painful and revOlting one. He was brought here 10 destroy the measuring worm which formerly infested the shade trees in our cities Not content with doing his duty ip point of worms. the sparrow deliber ately and wickediy devOurs grain, and thus ruins the farmers most valuable crops. Filled with hatred of all honest birds. the sparrow makes war upon our native song birds. and. according tO the testimony taken by the committee, he is rapidly eXterminating them. Meanwhile he pays no attention tO worms and thus entirely ignores the contract under which he was brought to this country. He is faithiess, graminivOrOus. murderOus thief and even the most hardened crow looks upon him with contempt and disgust
 This is a terrible indictment. luj until the committee of Ornitholo-iSts submits it's evidence against the sparrow Co the pu-lic it will not do 10 assume that the inlicl ment is a just one. In behalf of the spar TOW it may be urged that he did hs .uli duty in regard Co the measuring g-worms. and totally exierminated those peS.s in this city. Is it fair to ignore this fact. and Is it reasonable to complain that the sparrow no longer feeds on mea>uring- worms when the simple truth is that there are no more measuring worms for him 10 eatl in the absence of measuring worms the SpII TOW has contracted the habit of eating grain. This is also the habit of many of our native singing birds, whose thrCateDed exterminatiOn by the sparrow is bewai.ed by the committee In what respect is the graminivorOus sparrow worse than other graminivorous birds? Of course. if he is more numerous than other birds he will eat more grain, but is it just to call him criminal because he multiplies more rap idly than our native birdsy
 That the sparrow is eXterminating our song-birds may be doubted. He does moi exterminate the English song birds. and if 1t be true that as soon as he reaches this country he plunges into murder and Ojh4' crimes. we must make the humiiating aL mission that there is something demOral iZing 10 birds as well as to statesmen in our political atmosphere. Doubles the sparrow fights occasionally with other birds, and, owing Co his skill and pluck, he usually defeats them. There are. how ever good many singing birds s,ll left, and if they are in process of eXterminatiOu by the sparrow the process Is very slow one. It must be remembered th.- an iu- dictment is not a conviction. and until the sparrow has had fair trial-witt the aid of able counsel-and been duly a legally I'd It- fs..H demned criminal
 But. granting all that is said against tho sparrow. how is be to bc extormil ltcd. IL is idle to talk of shooting him. for he is too small to be hit by the average sport5- man at greater distance than three yards Even the experienced German sTo tsmeB who 20 forth from this city to the wi.ds Of Long Island. accompanied ly Sp.tz dogs rarely succeed in hitting a sparrow Poison. too. is out of the question. for. as one of the committee moUrufuliy Ged the Australians have already trie. Co poison their sparrows. and have in s2 doin 2 poisoned their chickens a result as unsatisfactory as it was unexpected There remains but one means of cx- terminating the sTarTOw. To the cat alone can we look for efficient aid in carry ing out the extermi-atiun policy When spsrrows are abundant an active cat will kill from three Co four daily. There are at the lowest estimate 500 CO., eco spar rows now in this country. Let us assume that one cat can kill three spaTrows in twenty four hour. l. will therefore take 300, 0O0. 900 cats 10 eXierminatc the spar rows in a single day. It cannot. however. | be assumed that every Cat will be ready t0 kill its three sparrOwS. or that the spar rows will SO distribute themselves as to | place three of their number within reach of every active cat At least half of the cats will prefer steal ing milk or taking care of ,heiI families to killing sparrows. and a: | least half of the sparrows wall keep out of the way of the cats. In order. there fore. to promptly exterminate 9J0,O0lG0l sparrows we must provide ourselves with | ], 200, 900, 900 cats. or say twenty-tolr cts ! to every human inhabitant of this coun- | try. Even were this to be done We -Ould ! not trust the cats. who might Gt anv mo ment refuse to touch the Sparr1ws. afd I prefer to become graminivorOus and totally ! destroy our crops.
 It will bt at once seen that Co supply ourselves with twen;yfour Ca,s apiece | would be madness. Bad as the %parr0ws may be. they are infinitely better thar | cats. Let us accept the inevitable with a ! good grace, and cease to abuse the spar row. We brought him here and here he | will remain It is impossible to eN- terminate him. and the sooner the ornith- ! ologists recognize the fact the better.