To the Editor of the Scientific American:

I write to relate an incident which may be of interest to some of the readers of your valuable paper. There is a bar iron mill, situated in a neighboring town four miles from here, that has been on fire three or four times, in which the English sparrow might be called the incendiary. These sparrows pick up old pieces of cotton waste, which they build in their nests, among the timbers of the roof of the mill, and in every case of the fires above mentioned, these nests were the cause, either from spontaneous combustion or from sparks from the hot iron striking and lodging in the nest. If you could suggest some way of getting rid of the sparrows, I think the manager of the mill would be glad to adopt your plan.

R. W. Kear.

Pottsville, Pa., February 14, 1887.