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The English Sparrow

The English Sparrow image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
August
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A correspondent of tlie Washtenaw Evening Tiaies makes the followiug sensible remarks on the wholesale slaughter of the English sparrow for the sake of the bounty of two cents per head which has been placed upon it by our legislators, and which money could be put to a great deal better use if d verted into other channels: 'This bird, wrongly called Enstlish sparrow is distributed all over Europe and is never there credited with the bad habits it is supposed to have here. It was introduced into this country from Germany to destroy the caterpillars that infested the linden trees of Philadelphia. fSince that time it has increased enoruiously and spread over nearly the whole of this country. The feeling that has grown up against this bird is largely due to a misapprehension of its habits. In the tirst place, it is credited with driving away the native birds. but a close investigation of facts will show that the iacrease of our population- the consequent increase in the size of our towns, has bad more to do with driving away such native birds as the bluebird. "The European sparrow loves to live in towns and is ahvays fouud in thickly populated districts. The native birds, on the other hand, such as the bluebird. when the orchards are destroyed and replaced by houses, leave for more open situations. The next alleged iniquity of the European sparrow is the dainage done to seeds in the garden and elsewhere. This is true to a certain extent but is not so great as the damage done by the robins to the ripe cherries, or by the. orioie to the grapes. 'Let us, however, consider the otlier side of the question, namely: What good the European sparrow does. If any one will take the trouble to put a nesting box somewhere outside a window so that the birds can be watched, it will be a surprise to thern to see the parent birds, as soon as the young ones are hatched, carrying in caterpillars, and with four or five in the nest. as they grow, there is hard 1 y a minute during daylight when one or other of the parents niay not be seen carrying a Caterpillar to feed the ni. This will give some idea of the enormous amount of destructive insects destroyed in tbe season by one pair of birds, especially when it is remembered that they have four or five broods in a season. 'The only other allegation against these birds is the mess they make when they build their nests: this is most easily avoided by simply blocking up those places in the sides of the houses vhere they can build nests. if we now cousider this question from a moral standpoint it must seem to an impartial observer that we are slightly inconsistent in our actions. A few weeks back we were giving lectures to the children }n our schools with a view to inculcating in them a feeling of kiudness to animáis and now while these children are enjoying their vacation we are paying them two cents a head for every sparrow they can k.ll, and the worst feature of this is that these children are using poison to obtain this bounty. Deith by poison. especially arsenic which is universally used, is one of the most paiuful deaths imaginable. It is an irritant poison and the inside of the stomach is eaten into holes wherever it is deposited, and an intense iufiammation is set up. This will give some idea of the torture these little birds endure before they die. Just how long it takes after they have swaïlowed the poisonsd wheat is not knowu, but it is a tact that wheat has been put out in the evening and the sparrows were seen falling dead out of the shade trees at 10 o'clock the next morrjïng. We cali ourselves Christians, but there seems to be very little of true Christianity in this. Must not the nioral effect on. our children be bad and is it not possible that later on some of them may be tempted to get rid of an inconveuient relative in the same marnier? The mischief also is not confined to the sparrow; many of our seed-eating songbirds are destroyed, and even robins and squirrels, and many dogs and cats. that have eaten the dead birds are also killed. In the case of cats it is peculiarly cruel as there is not enough poison to kill them at once and they crawl into some secluded spot and linger in agony for days. "There only remains to be conisdered the utility of this bounty system. íjince 1S87 three acts have been passed by the legislature of this state, and up to the end of last year $61,800 have been paid out for these birds. According to the Detroit papers they seem to be as numerous this year as usual. In the Island of Bermuda, which is less than 20 square miles in extent, 10 years after the European sparrow had been introduced a bounty was instituted. and after spending $2,500 in two years, it was given up as being utterly hopeless to extermínate them. How much better off would this state be if the amount paid out for sparrows in the last ten years had been expended on good roads?"

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News