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Show CHATTER. (Being the personal opinions of tho writer and for which no ono elso Is In any manner responsible.) Brethren and sisters, I arlso this week to mako a plea In behalf of birds. That Is, some birds. I also arlso to f I plead for tho extermination of somo H birds. I ask for tho absolute exterml- , I nation of that useless, saucy, and al- II together worthless mombor of tho j H feathered tribe, tho English sparrow. ; n H I would urge that ho bo shot, poisoned, '' H trapped or otherwise killed; that tho :j H nest of his mato bo robbed and its i H eggs destroyed or tho fledgollngs ij H killed, and that the partner of his Joys H and sorrows bo wiped off tho scono H of action. I urgo that this work bo 1 H commenced right away and continued H until there Is not a sparrow left. ' H Now some people will say: "Why jH the mean, cruel wretch!" I am no i HJ such thing. I am doing this in behalf 1 H of the bluo bird and tho robin; of jH Jenny Wren and tho llttlo torn tit, of HJ tho llttlo yellow birds you erroneously jflj call wild canaries, of tho English rob- H in and all tho other birds you used to H sco around in tho trees, but now seo HJ very rarely, except In tho country, HJ away from tho placo whero tho Eng- HJ lish sparrow makes his homo. Not a t HJ blessed ono of you will contradict mo HJ when I say that this nasty llttlo j HJ scavenger, who does not and can not . (' HJ sing a note, has drivon out tho other HJ birds; that ho Is an unfair fllghtor, '., H and attacks tho others in troops and ' H makes llfo a burden for thorn, many J H times killing them. Now did you qver , i IH go into tho hills and watch a treo full jJ of torn tits? Of course. Did you over HJ notice that they wcro most always HJ upsido down, looking at tho bottom of i ' IHJ tho leaves? Yes. Well, do you know IJ what they wero doing? No. Then I'll 4 H tell you. They wcro looking for tho HJ eggs laid by noxious insects, which al- HJ ways choose tho under sldo of tho leaf HJ for an incubator. Well, you say, what j HJ of It? This of It. Bororo tho English . HJ sparrow was hero; when the torn tit HJ roamed around at will, thero wasn't j H such a thing as a coddling moth was t there? Ask any of tho old Bottlers 1 H and ho will tell you that tho appear- ! HJ1 anco of tho coddling moth began with i 1 tho disappearance of. tho torn tit and that as tho torn tit grow scarce In tho , I valley and took to tho hills tho moth increased. Ah, now a light dawns on ' your vision. You sco a few things. .,! HH Havo you noticed, too, that tho ,! worms that eat your vines, light on J. your plants and destroy them aro In- i jH creasing day by day? That this year HJP thoy aro worse than last? That they j BP even get on the hop vines you havo Jj HHj ' 'HH Ii j1 for temporary shade and eat them up? ti Of course you have and you have won-I won-I , dered. Did you over take a trip out I intho country and note the hop vines I climbing all over, heavy laden with 1 blossoms, and did you over stop to i think that out there Is the canyons the I torn tit and the robin, and tho blue 1 bird and tho cat bird and all tho rest I are constantly at work while In town 1 and through tile settlements the spar-I spar-I row never makes any effort at feeding other than to loaf around tho back ! door waiting foe you to throw out ;' , f bread.or else scratching oyer a mile of manure in search of pa'rilaHy digested di-gested grain? Wliyj no, but when some one tolls you, , you recall that it 1 , Is fact. Well, then, why keep tho ,, 1 English sparrow? He Is neither useful, use-ful, ornamental nor pleasing. He Is ii an Infernal nuisance, a pirate who alii al-ii ways flics the black flag and has no ) more reason for existing than a bed bug and ought to bo as ruthlessly doll do-ll stroyed. H, 1 Oh, I lovo birds. That is, useful birds. And In the great economy of creation there are very few that are not useful. Take these bull bats, or H' night hawks, that fly around in the j evening, making that peculiar sound, j , Men shoot at him just' for fun, thlnk- Lm ing he serves no good purpose. Ho at- fl , tracts neither attention by the beauty H of his plumage nor the sweetness of BB his volco. Ho just soars around, hol- H lerlng "Scalp," "Scalp," and when he H 1 sits on a limb or a fence, sits length- , wise, Instead of crosswise. He ( doesn't hang around civilization, but H seeks out a rocky place and his mate Kj lays her eggs right on tho ground, i preferring stones to earth. He serves Hj , a very useful purpose, however. Ho ' ! has an abnormally largo stomach, and Hll ! when he flics around ho Is gobbling up Hji j Insects by tho hundreds. Flying ants Hf ' j nre a principal artlclo of diet. Ono f i bird killed had over 1,800 ants In its H j crop. Now, nnts aro not ordinarily . j bad, but if it' were not for these birds 'j ; they would overrun creation. They Hu.jj are killed at a timo when ready to Hl propagate their species; when every ' ono means hundreds more, and tho H 1,800 found in this bird doubtless meant millions of ants but for its aq-, aq-, tion. Exterminate tho bull bats and H nnts would overrun creation. Tho bull bat also cats beetles, squash beo-H' beo-H' , tics, potato bugs, grasshoppers and H, other insects, and ho plays an impor- " tant part In rendering tho world lit to H, live in. It ought to bo a crlmo to kill a bull bat, and any ono who reads this Is respectfully but' lirmly re-quested re-quested not to do so any more. Tho woodpecker is another valuable bird. Eighty per cent of his food Is . noxious insects, the balance being vegetable and mineral matter. The robin Is a great destroyer of Insects and worms. True, he occasionally nips a cherry, but who begrudges him a llttlo dessert? The blue bird and tho yellow hammer all destroy insects. In fact every bird I can think of except this murderous, pugnacious, useless sparrow has somo uso. And again I urge that tho sparrow bo extolrml-nated extolrml-nated and our old banished friends welcomed homo again. Wq need 'em. Whllo on this topic, let mo direct your attention to another matter. This isn't a bird, but an animal. All over Utah gophers and ground squirrels nre burrowing under lucerno fields and . in potato patches and through vegota- bio gardons. Yet when tho boys sco a badger, they and the dog, and pa, and the hired man nil rush to destroy 1 tho badger. They smoko him out, drown him out', trap him, shoot him, poison him, any way to get him. And yet, Mr. Badger was put hero for tho express purpose of destroying these-pests. these-pests. Blind man has killed the badger until he. in nearly extinct, but tho gopher and tho ground squirrel aro with us, multiplying and roplon- v"?"G k u.AJmLmV J HHL B Ishlng tho earth with a species of pests. The farmer says: "Gol darn them gophers, I wish I could kill the last one of them," and then the youngest son comes In and yells "Badger" and tho old man grabs tho gun and rushes out to shoot his best friend. The badger goes after gophers sclentlllcally. He enters a town and gets in communication with tho streets of tho settlement, burrows from ono to another and slays all tho hibernating pest, male and female, llttlo and big. Then he goes to another place and establishes himself In business over again. Ho ought to bo protected. The game law should protect him and tho crazy fool who shoots him, poisons him or drowns him out ought to bo sent to jail for a year. If men would only see things with their eyes open; take notes on tho way the earth was created and peopled, peo-pled, it would bo a better place to live In, becauso wo wouldn't have half tho troublo wo aro having. |