The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-28

destroy as great a quantity of insect
pests as birds that are entirely insect
ivorous. When it is found that in the
food of the native sparrows such pests
average but 25 per cent, it is only what
might be expected. Still this percent
age, when compared with the percent
ages found in the cases of some other
birds, is no mean showing. The red
winged blackbird's is less than 20 per
cent. the catbird's but 16 per cent, the
cowbird's IS per cent. and the crow
blackbirds only 10 per cent.
Birds as Weed Destroyers.
"But as weed destroyers the native
sparrows are unrivaled. In a garden
within two months they will sometimes
destroy 90 per cent. of such weeds as
pigeon grass and ragweed. After they
have consumed most of these seeds
they turn to those of other weeds,
which furnish them with a bountiful
supply of food all through the winter
and even well into the spring. Weed
seed forms more than half of their
food for the entire year. and during
the colder half of the year it constit-
utes about four-fifths of the food of
many species.
when the food of the native spar
rows is divided, the neutral part proves
to be small, not exceeding a third of
all that is eaten; the injurious part
very small and the beneficial part
much larger than that of most birds,
and from five to ten times as great as
the injurious part. We may therefore
safely conclude that, as a class. these
small birds are well worthy of our
protection.
ut is not at all uncommon for a field
sparrow to eat 100 seeds of crab grass
at a single meal. In the stomach of
Nuttalrs sparrow have been found
300 seeds of amaranth, and in another
800 seeds of lambs quarters; a tree
sparrow that was examined had con-
sumed 700 seeds of pigeon grass at a
meal, while a snowflake taken at Beav-
erdam, Wis, which had been break
fasting in garden in March, had pick
ed up 1900 seeds of amaranth.
1.-The seed element is of particular
interest only when it shows destruction
of grain or weeds. Injury to grain or
fruit by birds is usually the most prom
inent and often the only fact of eco
nomic ORTHODOXY possessed by the
layman: yet comparatively few birds
harm either of these crops, while many
species render important service to
agriculture by destroying weed seed
English Breed Obnoxious.
1.-THE obnoxious character of the Eng
fish sparrow is widely recognized, and
numerous attempts by means of boun-
ties and otherwise have been made to
rid the country of it's presence, but
with little success. The wariness OF
the bird, it's hardihood and it's prodig-
ious fecundity have thus far rendered
all such efforts futile.
"In the city of Boston, during 1899, a
crusade was inaugurated through the
efforts of the American Society of Bird
Restorers. From March Is to April
5 six men were employed in the Com
mon and Public Garden destroying the
nests and eggs. Five thousand nest
ing holes We're plugged up. 1000 nests
destroyed and 1000 eggs broken, but
no birds We're killed. 1t is claimed that
nearly half of the sparrows which nor
mally breed on the Common and PUB
lie Garden were driven away. In May
only $50 to 300 pairs of sparrows were
found, while the number of pairs
counted in the parks before the spar
row war began amounted to 500.
Much is always to be learned from
an experiment of this kind, and other
cities should profit by Boston's expert
ence. There is reason to believe, how
ever, that the present rapid supplant-
ing of horse power by electricity will
by reducing the food supply of the
birds, do more toward diminishing their
numbers in the city parks than any
plan for restricting their reproduction