New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-13
THE INNOCENT SPARROW
A Good Word for a Harmless, Necessary
and Much Abused Bird
To the Editor OF the Tribune.

To the Editor of the Tribune.
Sir. The abuse of the English sparrow is
due to ignorance and unwarranted prejudice
No person is competent to judge OF birds
unless possessed OF thorough knowledge OF
the activities and life histories of insects and
competent to differentiate between the bene-
fetal and injurious There is no bird which
can measure up to the sparrow in the de-
struction of noxious insects or as promoter
of sanitation.
The claim that it drives away other birds
is largely unfounded. II does not frequent
the forests, where the native birds are left
undisturbed, but clings TO human habtaton,
the more dense the better, where few other
birds could safely nest or obtain food even if
there were no sparrows. II is q marvellous
destroyer of the cutworm and can even rout
the moth from It's concealment IN the grass,
which no other bird seems 20 De able 20 DO.
As a consumer Of thistle and weed seeds it
has no equal except perhaps the quail In
New York City the spring and fall canker
worms (geometrid larvae, which formerly de
foliated the shade trees, are now so rare that
the collector has difficulty in obtaining a
specimen for his cabinet. Few insects are
safe from the bird. The imported European
leopard moth, whose deep boring laryS are
nearly immune from destruction, is efTec,u-
ally checked. as the sparrow consumes the
moths as they lie prone on the surface Of
the ground under the electric lights which
attracted them the previous night.
| suggested starvation as means Of in
sect control over twenty five years ago. The
United States Health Service has adopted
my suggestion for the purpose Of elminat-
ing the rat by advising the storage of all
grains in inaccessible containers. The OBJ
ect sought is to prevent this rodent, through
the medium of its parasitic flea, from acting
as purveyor of bubonic plague The spar
row, however. is doing the most effective part
of the work by consuming every particle OF
scattered grain throughout the streets and
around barns and granares and also all food
products derived from grain, which are
strewn more or less pentifully over the sur
face of the ground in every yard, street and
dumping place. Not only are rats and mice
thus prevented from obtaining sustenance,
but the attracting, breeding and multiplied
ton of house and other flies and various
other insects are prevented.
The good Offices Of the bird as scayenger
can hardly be computed. The house fy pre-
fers stable accumuations for generation, and
such of the material as occurs in the streets
the sparrow, by disintegraton, in search of
undgested grains, renders unseryiceabe for
breeding not only BY this insect but by other
flies. including the biting stable fly, which ia
suspected of being a purveyor of anthrax
and possibly in some instances of infantile
paralysis After the disintegration or the
material by the sparrow it is rendered in
nocuous by the germicidal rays of the sun
and is readily washed into the sewer by rains
or flushing. Any fly maggots infesting the
material are also devoured Sparr0ws will
find food on a closely shaver lawn where any
other birds would starve, as their small size
and BILL coupled with keen vision. enable
them to scrutinize the closest interstices in
the grass and capture extremely minute in-
sects as we'll as many larger and more in
furious TO the heritage. More could be said
to the credit OF the bird, but enough has
been shown to enttle it not only 20 ample
protection. but 10 the erection OF temple
in its honor.
ARCHIBALD {. WEEKS,
Librarian Brooklyn chronological Society.
Brooklyn. Deo 8, 1916.