The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-02-23

OF leaves and then lie upon their bellies or
sides and peck feebly at space. One red
bird put into a cage with couple OF spar
rows would have them to the bad IN i've
minutes. vet this brilliant, picturesque in
habftaut of this part Of the world is now
almost utterly absent from it. The trOu-
bic with the martin, the mOcker and the
redblrd is that they do not breed every
six weeks.
Shreveport residence districts are
noted for the width and depths of the
yards which surround specimens Of the or
namentaI trees common to the South-ce-
OARS arborvitaes, magnOlias, bays, and so
forth. These trees were once the homes
Of singers and parti-coiored visitors in
Vulnerable. Just now they furnish alb ding
places for the foreigners and nothing
more The sight Of a bunch Of dusty
brown. dirty. offaleating. cluttering,
swearing sparrOws amid the glossy green
leaves of the magnolia is not good for the
temper. The cemeteries Of Shreveport
are heavily freed with thick-branched
evergreens Wandering among them it is
sometimes possible TO find mocker or
even a Northern thrush or two, the
brown backed or the catbird; but the fact
that they have been forced to take refuge
among the tom0s1ones is ev- dence or the
! violence with which they have been pur-
/ sued In fact they would he disturbed
even there but fer the cemetery keepers,
who do as much as they can to keep the
I robbers out.
The bird which has made its way thus
far southwark from Massachusetts is Of
! a somewhat lighter color tn its NCrJh-
ern proeenitor, owing probably 10 the
: ferceness of the Iong-cOntinued sun. but
il is not smaller or less vigorous. Every
( thing else away below the Mason and
I Dixon line shows some tendency 10 wilt
I'll s-TH &c n
! avoid unnecessary eXertiOn, and 50 10
| ease along until frost comes; but not 50
! the sparrow. It's indomitable meanneSS
keeps it robbing and breeding and asSas-
sinating steadily the year round In the
/ large cities of the North there are GER
/ tain seasons so Indictment that the bird
! cannot or will not nest and reproduce
but here it is not deferred from contin-
| uous matrimCny by any climatic cOnsld-
| erations For this reason its growth in
, the South is apt 10 be even more rapid
than its growth IN the North. and what
il Is doing TO Northern birds in the spring
and summer is well known to every or
uithoIogist. Bird lovers assert that IN
less some general and forcible means OF
relief is found there viii not be any song
birds at all in America twenty years
hence.
Many remedies have been suggested aEt
/ several of them tried. but they are al
/ open to objection. Poisoning sparrow;
! with wheat grains soaked in StrychaIn1
and water and then dried is an easy mat
ter The sparrOws congregate about barn:
and stables in clouds and will take the
wheat readily. It bowls them over as !
they were tenpius- The trouble is tha
other birds will take II IS well and if tht
| last grain is not found and destroyed at
| Ter the sparrows leave the place. some
valuable and rare songster may be slain
! II is believed that so fer as city parks
are concerned the pests could be made L
get up and get by sparrow hawks bred il