The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-15

swarm with nothing but sparroWs' The gardens in our suburbs, where for merly other birds were common or not uncommon, have now nothing put spar rows. An occasional visitor IS seen e robin, wren or titmouse, put It aisap pears in a day or two. It is a pellel that this is entirely due to the increase of sparrows. As Londoners this IS nearly our only grudge against them' we feed them we'll
 Professor Newton, the editor or lills book, when he heard of the lntroouetloli of the sparrow in America, Austfalia and New Zealand, wrote: "In most o1 these places it will, of course, oust some of the indigenous species, ana VIII Will most probably, in a few years become an intolerable nuisance.
 pr. Charles Pickering was the Hfst man in this country to give a warn ing, but this, like others when soon followed was allowed to pass unheeueo' In 1874 when the ornithologists became thoroughly aroused, and when great controversy began on the supJecl' u was practically too late to do anythins. Since then the sparrow has had things pretty much his own way, and 1t IS doubtful if the spasmodic efforts made to wipe him out by setting price on | his head and by making II mlsae- meanor to feed or harbor hlnl nave done anything more than add the spice | of advent ure to his life.
 Although comparatively a new conner, | he is the best-known of all American birds, and he adds hundreds ot thou- sands of square miles to his territory every year. And this in spite or the | fact that he Is an outlaw and that he numbers his enemies by the million But he has few friends who stick ur for him in spite of all his misdeeds When war was being waged agalns' him in Boston; when men were em- ployed to destroy all the sparroWs nests in the public gardens and wher hundreds of people were covering UT the crevices in their houses with wire netting, in order to prevent the spar rows from taking possession, it was amusing to see other folks feeding the | little outlaws on sponge cake
 It is not necessary to describe the habits of the house sparrow, as mos people already know them better thar they care to- How he is regarded by such eminent naturalists as the late pr Elliott Coues and D. ". Prentiss may be gathered from the following para graph to be found in their "Avifaunt Collrmbiana :"-"W Washington harbor and encourages a select assortment o noise nuisances-the black neWspape imps, who screech every one dear ol sunday morning. the fresh fish flends the berry brutes, the soap-fat seoun
 drels and the O clo' devils; the mill mercenaries with their detonatini
 sonss: but all these have their exits a
 well as their entrances; the sparrow
 alone are tireless. ubiquitous, sempiter
 nal"
 Tn conclusion let me say that tn
 term English" sparrow is mtsno
 mer; he is no more English than he l
 German or Russian or French. HI
 range included almost the whole of Eu
 rope, and he is also found in Persia
 Central Asia, India and Ceyion NoN
 that he has added North America to hi
 possessions, would 1t not be we'll
 drop the ''Engnsh'' and call him tn
 "universar' sparrow?
 I care nothing for your powder or you
 shot,
 That's what!
 I care nothing for your legislative act'
 Don't think I'm going to leave yo' cause I'm not;
 And remember, what I'm telling yo
 are facts.
 l, ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.