Morning journal and courier., 1892-04-14
A Good Word for the sparrow.


 In the hungriest times I never see the
 sparrow attack his marrows in size or near
 ly SO; and. what is very much more to the
 purpose, I never see, nor ever have seen,
 any signs of apprehension, of even striking
 recognition on the part of other small
 birds, occasioned by the advent of one or dozen sparrows. If 6 cat or kitten, or
 even dog, shows itself anywhere near, up fly the birds, some into the ivy, some to
 the neighboring thorn, the blaokbirds and
 30 on to more distant shelter. If show myself abruptly at the window, much the same sort of stampede takes place. But the advent of whole troop of sparrows makes not the slightest apparent difference to the company assembled, hedge-spar- rows, chafinches, robins, or what not. To be sure, if one of the new arrivals seems to affect 6 morsel to which 8 robin has al- ready attached himself, or even appears likely to direct his attention that way, the robin, in nine case out of ten, gives him 6 decided hint with his sharp bill to .'keepH out of thst;n and never yet saw even the pswkiest spsrrow venture to stand up to the aggressive redbreast. -..-
 An to ~unt nave eccu Scll Cdiicu tuc ridiculous notion of his driving other birds away" or "displacing other birds more valuable than himself," or having to do with the diminution in the numbers of white-throats, chafhnches, and tits, and all the rest of that fsrrago of nonsense, do not so much question the alleged facts on which it is made to depend as deny them altogether. It is fact that during the severe snowy weather we had few weeks ago my usual number of pensioner spar rows had dwindled down to four or five couples in place of the pristine ter, twelve, or fifteen couples. But l do not sllege 1t as a fact that these diminished numbers are due to 8 league of the starlings (who were present to the number of four pairs, con- trary to all precedenD, robins, cuddies, chsffinches, etc.. formed against the spar rows; although if did it would be just as reasonable and just as we'll supported as these contrary statements under notice. used to see great fiocks of greenhnches, numbering many scores, sometimes two or three hundreds, in our corn stubbles dur ing the late autumn and early winter, while of late years the numbers are strangely re- duced. But think there is another way of accounting for such diminution besides attributing it to any cause analogous to the alleged hostile action of the spsrrow-s cause, too, much more in harmony with the aseertained laws of nature. There are fewer slovenly farmers than there used to be. The greendnches had what a gardener | of mine once termed "a lavishing time of | it" when whole farms had their corn6slds | yellow with charlock while the corn was growing, and strewed with its seeds after | harvest. And real observers know we'll | enough that the questions of adequate sup ply of food and varying climatic influences | have more to do with the presence or ab- | sence of birds in successive seasons than | any such utterly inadequate causes as the alleged hostility or usurping aggression of some other, and especially only 6 single, species of birds.