The Wilmingtonian., 1886-10-30
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 80, 1855.
The Sparrow and Rice Bird,


Merriam, chief of the writers upon this div.
ision of the Department places the English
sparrow at the head of the category of mis-
chief makers, and of relatively little value.
The New York Herald quotes him as say
ing "this bird was imported with flourish
of praise some years ago as an agent for the
protection of shade trees from the ravages of
caterpillars, irch worms, and other creeping
things, and has so multiplied and developed
amoug its new surroundings as to become,
DR.. Merriam thinks,a vastly greater scourge
than the one it was expected to counteract.
Its present rate of increase is enormous,
and the new territory which it inyades is es-
timated at more than one hundred and thir.
ty thousand square miles annually. 1t is es-
sentally town bird, Nesting almost ex-
slusvely about and upon the projections of
buildings, but it takes long vacations during
the fiut growing seasons and wreaks its
fastidious appetite upon the largest and juci-
est of grapes and the daintest of tree fruits,
in which.work of destruction its aggregate
of damage is almost incompatible. How
best to prevent its further increase and cur
tail It's ravaging propensities is an unsolved
problem. 1t may be shot or poisoned, or it
ha af
plan promises permanent relief 1t is a wary
and suspicious creature, readily learning to
avoid places where any OF its fellows met
their fate, whle,as if in anticipation of future
necessities, it has, within the last year or
two, begun to study and practise the art of
nest building in trees. 1t is, as yet, the most
lubberly of winged architects, carrying great
heaps of unassimilable rubbish to its build
ing place, where it makes huge, shapeless
structure, upon the top of which it sets up
Housekeeping. Oftener than otherwise the
first high wind brings the mass to the ground
and works the destruction of all it's domestic
arrangements"
OF the bobolink or rice bird Dr. Merriam
speaks in almost equally condemuatury terms
indeed in way tending to upset widely
prevalent notions npon the habits aud value
to humanity of this pride of the epicureans.
His words seem to indicate the desirablity
of organized effort for the destruction of this
little pest to valuable branches of agricul-
ture.
He says "the bobolink Of the North the
rice bird of the South, has been receiving
much close attention from the ornithologist
and his correspondents. This cheerful little
creature is found to be rather helpful to the
Northern grain growers, an examination OF
its wldisciosing the fact that it does not
care for the growing grain,I but lives upon
the seeds of destructive weeds and upon
equally destructive field insects. But il so
times its annual migration as to pass about
three weeks in the rice fields of the South
at the season when that grain is in the milky
state, and there its ravages are enormous
The estimated annual loss to the rice plan
tiers from the depredatons of this bird is be-
tween 50, OO0 900 and "a, 900, 900. DIR. Mer.
riam recently spent some time in the fields
of South Carolina for the purpose of study.
ing the habits of the bird and cf experiment
ing with view to preventing its depieda-
tiOns. He found the planters making their
usual heroic efforts, and with their usual
partial success, to save their crops For il
lustratitn field of two hundred acres le-
quired the employment of more than fifty
men and boys, their dutyi being fol some
hours, morning and evening, to create such
hubbub with guns aud other npise-produc-
ing implements as would prevent the binds
from settling upon this particular field, and
scare them over to those of their ne ghbors,
where simitar din was in progress for a
Ike purpose. DR. Merriam caused number
o. stuffed hawks, with wings outsprcad, to
be suspended BY strings llom tall poles so
as to sway with the breeze over the fields
This device proved a safeguard for only two
or three days, by which time the bobolinks
had mastered the trick, and thereafter they
treated the dummies with contempt How
ever, one day while the ef1igies were still
swinging and after tie robbers had again
settled down to their work, Dr.. Merriam no.
ticed single live hawk high up, sailing
over the flats. The bobuink rose in great
clouds and remained in the air until the per-
il VAS passed, although the hawk apparently
laid no attention to them.
DIR. Merriam thinks that single hawk.
trained as were the falcons with which the
Eportsmen of the Middle Ages amused them
selves, would.be an effective protection to a
rice field Of 200 acres. 1t is probable that
an experiment in this direction will be tried
If person of sufficient experience in the
training of birds can be found to undertake