The San Francisco call., 1909-07-24

RE YOU the possessor Of a pear
a tree OF 2 rose ebEsh2 II so. listen
with patience and gratitude 10 the
noisy English sparrow
he n voa- busiest and most faithful
11tle helper that nature affords against
the multitude Of enemies OF both For
Upward of 80 years the writer has been
3 close observer OF these birds and
their industry. and is not now guessing.
declares q contributor 10 Our Dumb
Animals
The great pest OF the pear tree is a
white bOrer with pink head His grub
mother lays her eggs where the bark
offers protection 10 them, and when the
infant borer is hatched he works his
way &c the sweet inner sap. and eats
oct a sumpUuous home, free from dan
ger When limb dies toward the tree
TOP Il Is notice OF lack Of sap that the
hOrer has stopped somewhere down in
the trunk, enormously called sun
blight The English sparrow Is par
ticularly fond Of the fedgiinz borers
picks them out from under the loose
bark and saves the orchard from de-
struction-
The vermin II Al makes wormy pears
begin business n the bloom Here IS
the sparroE's breakfast food without
cooking Did you ever see him pick
these vermin out OF blossoms, fitting
from one 10 another, working not by
the hour, but by the 5Ob2
He does X just the same. No eight
hour law or union dictstion clips his
wings or shrivels his ambition And
where he IS most assiduous there viii
he gathered the largest and fairest
fruit il the fail No man or set OF men
can perform for YOU this trick OF the
sparrow
The worm that fpfests rose bushes
does his worst from the under side
OF the leaf. difficult to reach with any
manner Of spraying And the spray
that destroys the worm is no help 70
the bush The sparrow hustles among
and under the branches ana captures
these worms By the thousands. Though
working for his living. he Incidentally
saves the bush and gives Us roses.
What is his clatter and harmless clut-
ter compared with a fresh Ieayed bush,
covered with bright and perfect roses ?
II a sparrow does not attack tent
caterpillsrs, neither does the robin,
who Is not reprosched for the same
neglect And what OF it2 They each
pursue the prey OF their special liking.
very much Ike other folks" in this
respect. is II not2
Last summer some species OF worms
attacked q large Norway maple in the
writer's yard and devoured the leaves
over q space as large as a barn door
when, suddenly, the sparrowE pounced
upon the scene in bunch. They
cleaned Of the worms. and IN the fall
no trace was left OF the incident
Brown tai moths when loaded with
eggs. are another choice morsel OF the
Englisa sparrow. whatever may be
written 70 the contrary. Things seen
we know exist Such is the line Of
cleavage between theory and a con-
dition.
But the latest and most astonishing
discovery against the sparrow ema-
mates from q moth exterminator In Es-
sex county. Mass. He says the Eng
iish sparrow has driven away the wood
pecker. Do you tell mel OF course. he
has never seen a @downyr tumble a
sparrow end over end, which Is not in
frequent and he forgets he IS cut
ting down every dead tree be can find
and IS plugging every hole he sees in
trees not dead Where. then can he
suppose the WOodpecker. whose home
is IN a hole in a tree, is going to live2
Certainly II such q home can not be
found in Essex county the woodpeeker
VIII seek some place where there are
trees with holes in them. or dead trees
in which he can peck holes for him
self Il Is contemplate OficialdOm that