The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-10
sPARROWS WAR ON CROWS.


The wide-spreading trees which orna-
ment the grounds about the Maryland
school for the blind, on East North ave-
nue., have been for a number of seasons
the abiding place for an interesting fam
lily of crows, and residents in that vicin-
ity have grown familiar with the dismal
cawing of these funeral birds. Their
various capers have long been a matter
of neighborhood interest, and every now
and then a new story of some quaint
trick of the birds goes the rounds. What
has been a. very happy home, however,
seems now on the point of being robbed
of all it's bliss by a persistent warfare
against the birds of dark hue by some
focks of English sparrows, which have
also made these trees their dwelling.
The determined fight being waged
against the poor crows has with other
features of their existence, become
matter of general comment among those
who have become interested in the birds
and these are being treated to daily
spectacles of an intensely interesting
and at times pathetic nature.
A whirring of wings, accompanied with
the Shrill cries of the sparrows, and, ris-
ing above this, the alarmed cawing of
the crows, indicates every now and then
that what must be a trying ordeal for
the crowds is on. This is a combined at
tack by these spiteful, ill-tempered and
hard-fghting visitors from across the
sea on the sedate crow family, now con-
with small prospects of an increase in
the family if the anti-crow battles are
continued perSiStently in the future
as they have been for the past week.
The pathetic feature is introduced by
the sad inability of the crows to combat
with any success against their fleet and
determined adversaries. The sparrowS
f1utter in a cloud about each of the
crows and one is frightened away only
to make room for another. The little
birds attack singly and in pairs, seeming
to take turns at giving the common en-
envy vicious jabs-from behind, from the
fore, from overhead, from underneath
until time and time again it seems that
the larger bird must be annihilated by
the bombardment of beaks.
Round and round plunge the warning
feathered hosts, and when in their mad
flight the flock comes near the house
tops, feathers can be seen 1uttering from
crows and sparrows, and blows are Civ
en- and returned. The tactics of the spar
rows are a source of continual interest,
and at every stage of the battle their
seems to be a well-planned method in
their assault. A tiny bird is ever ready
to take advantage of every turn of the
larger enemy, and with the swift darts,
the vicious thruStS they seem designed
by nature to be veritable prize fighters
of the air. The fights throughout are
running ones The crows seem to have
learned that their only chance is to fling
off the enemy by flight, and one spectac-
ular feature of the battles is the speed
lar circles, arcs and curves made through
the air by the whirring ball of feathers,
as the contestants seem a times to be.
Never ceasing come the voices of crows
and SparrOwS, each having a distinct
warcry, differing in marked manner
from their familiar voices enough so to
Immediately attract attention when the
mingled cries are heard by passers, used
only to the monotonous, fairly good-na-
tured cawing of crows and the not I'M
musical chirping of sparrows.
How the battle will eventually turn
out is still in doubt. The crows, with
rare persiStency, still visit their favorite
hauntS among the trees in the grounds
of the school, and as regularly as they
do they are attacked. Both sides seem
determined to win, but so far as OBJ
servers have noted the odds in actual
lighting belong with the sparrows. With
the continued loss of their feathers, there
seems some probability that in the near
future pair of bald crows will be an
unusual sight on East North avenue.
but whether the black birds continue the
fight until robbed of all of their glossy
plumage is a question. Certainly in that
plight they will be terrible sufferers in
subsequent battles with their sparrow
adverSarieS.
The crows are believed to be the same
that a season ago took up quarters on |
the Steeple of Mount Vernon Place
Methodist Episcopal church, and previ-
Gus to that time occupied SumptuOuS
quarters on the roof of the Peabody In
St1tute- Two crows still are seen in that
neighborhood, occasionally, though an
unremitting warfare is waged against
them there by the sparrows The crows.
upon taking up residence on Mount Yer
non church steep1e, vanquished a COM
pany of pigeons that for years had made |
free on that vantage point and then.
final Punishment was due in turn to the !
superior fighting abilities of sparrows |
Whether the war was begun by the
Sparrows on their own account, and on
general principles, or whether they are |
taking up the battle in the name of the |
unwarlike pigeons, is a mystery but |
certainly a state of unrnistakable war
exists between the crow and the SPAR
row forces, and it looks like the crows
are to be numerically licked