Evening star., 1948-11-26
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TrdceUell

what has happened to our sparrows?"
This is the question being asked by many
persons Hho have worked up a real affection
for these little birds. at one time called street
gamins because they infested the streets OF
large towns, both here and abroad.
The common house sparrow, also called
English sparrow,-is related to~the African
weaver bird, and is a creature of spectacular
habits; but many persons find little in it to
admire, unfortunately.
Such persons, OF whom there always are
many. sometimes 60 to the extreme Of killing
OF the common sparrows. on the plea that
they interfere with the lives Of the native
species.
A telephone caller the other day told of
800 sparrows, killed in q nearby Virginia
suburb by one man.
The caller was afraid that the killer did
not know the difference between common
sparrows and some Of the native sparrows,
such as the song sparrow and white -throated
sparrow.
Unfortunately. this is all too common.
Working up spleen against the English
species, such person slaughters indiscrim-
inately.
In this way, hundreds of valuable native
sparrows are killed every year.
But from the standpoint of the admirer of
all bird life, the wholesale deaths of common
SpdIroWS Is equally NelnOuS.
There is no reason for 1t, since nature takes
care Of all such matters, If let alone.
But some persons, suddenly becoming in
terested in bird life-after all these centuries
at once find that they must set themselves
up as rulers and controllers Of nature, in so far
as they can They grow red In the face over
sparrows, over starlings, over blue jays even,
and want to exterminate all the squirrels,
too.
Since all these creatures, no matter their
feathers or fur, are hungry in the cold,
it Is difficult to see why they should be blamed
for coming to a free lunch stand, such as
every active bird feeding station is.
The fact Is that no matter how hard one
person tries to exterminate any one species
Of creature, he always fails, because nature
is too much for him. 1t is lesson he has
to learn, but sometimes he can cause the
deaths of many innocents in the trying.
One man attempted to kill all the squirrels
in his neighborhood.
1t was against the law. of course, and so
is the killing Of songbirds, but that made
no difference.
He trapped squirrels, and exterminated them
day after day.
Whether there is q moral force in nature
is large question, not to be argued here,
but after this person had tried his best to
kill all the squirrels, he had much i'll for
tune in his own family.
And a year later there were more SQUIRRELS
than ever in his neghborhood!
Nature was too much for him, as 1t is
for most people.
The te1t thing to do, from humanitarian
standpoint, is to let the creatures alone.
If there is one sort you do not like, try
to find out its good points. Realize that many
persons, of equal or greater intelligence, find
much to admire in the unWanted species.
Drives against starlings, against common
sparroWS and others, at times result in
lowering of the rate of increase of the given
species. Over 10-year PERIOD however, the
decrease is wiped out and the efforts of one
puny individual in the killing line have gone
for nought.
Nature has asserted herself
She has done more than that. She has
demonstrated again, as she has many times
before, that killing is no good. Above ALL 1t
is worthless to the human who INDUCES In
it, since it brutalizes him and overthrows
all that Christianity has tried to do over
1000 years.
There are other reasons, of course, for
sudden decline in any one species Of birds.
One of these probably is the modern use of
high powered insecticides. No one knows just
how much damage these do. The returns are
not yet in There can be little question that
common sparrows, active and questing, would
be one of the first to suffer from such dis
regard of natural safety cautions and hazards.
The idea that common sparrows interfere
with native species has little validity. Any one
who feeds the birds in his own garden knows
that the beautiful native species get along
very we'll with the English sparroWs, and star
lings. There are other ways Of helping native
birds besides turning ones self into q killer.