The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-02
WHITE WINGS DID 1T.
They and the Trolley Cars Have
Driven the English Sparrow Away.

Driven the English Sparrow Away.
pittsburg Dispatch.
The little English sparrow, which for
many years has been considered pest in
Pittsburg, seems to have lost it's grip in
this city. Slowly but surely he is being
driven from the towns crowded streets into
the fields of the country, where he has a
better chance to get his meals regularly.
The sparrows have been moving from this
city for the past six years, until there are
comparatively few of them left. They no
longer hover over the streets in great num-
bers, chattering like magpies, driving other
birds out of the ward, and waking all late
sleepers long before they wish to get up.
No longer is the pedestrian worried by a
flash of brown and sharp squeak as the
little atom darts past his face, and wings
away, shaking his feathers in evident joy
at the scare he gave the citizen Though
not entirely gone, the sparrow is not so
numerous, and as he decreases In numbers
he grows modest and retiring.
There are many reasons advanced for the
thinning out of the English Importation
ranks. He don't find the streets of Pitts
burg such 81 picnic ground as when he first
came to town. The white-suited man who
daily sweeps the highways is a modern and
successful competitor of the pugnacious
bird who is Scavenger born and bred. He
cannot fill his stomach with what he prizes
from between cracks in the cobblestone
pavements now, and what he can pick from
the clean asphalt after a white wing" has
been there will not put much fat on his
bones.
him. 1t would be difficult to convince one
that anything moving could worry a spar
row who. to all appearances, seems to fear
neither God, man any of their works,
but the trolley car has been too much for
him. He is quick as lightning himself, but
IN the trolley car he has had a warm rival.
His old-time friend. the horse, didn't treat
him in this way. He had plenty of time
when dealing with the horses, but now he
has to work with one eye on his dinner
and the other on a Consolidate Company s
vehicle.
The slaughter of the little fellows has
been great, too. For many years the gun
clubs in and around Pittsburg have been
in the habit of giving sparrow shoots >
Hundreds of the birds are killed at each
meet. And every schoolboy seems to have
thought the sparrow legitimate prey, and
slungshots, as well as sparrow guns are
used with fatal accuracy.
If the truth be told, the public is not sorry
to see this. He has driven almost all the
other birds from Pittsburg's shade trees,
and has given nothing but annoyance in re-
turn. There are but few who agree with
the poet who wrote about THE Sparrow, -
saying, among other things:
And even in midwinter, when the trees are
brown and bare,
And the frosty flakes are flying through the
The sparrow still is with us, to cheer us
when we're glum,
For his presence is a prophecy of better
days to come.
A little further along the ryhmster pleads
for the sparrow in the following lines:
What more could you or | do than always
do our best?
Are we any more deserving than this little
British pest?
So, when you speak of future kings, you'd
better save crown
For the honest littlc sparrow with his mod
est coat of brown
All of which may be true, but it cuts
small figure with another enemy of the
blrd-the man with appetite. Sparrow
pot-pie, sparrow on toast and sparrow
baked ia the heart of a big sweet potato
make his mouth water and all the poetry
in the world does not save the feathered
Johnny Bull when it comes to providing
the gourmand with meal.
Allegheny's proposed experiment with the
the parks may be a success. and il NAV
not. but the white wings and the trolley
cars, with other natural enemies. have done
the business so far as Pittsburg's down
town streets are concerned.