THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 97 



cavity anywhere. Holes in trees and electric lamps are alike favored. Eggs: 

 4-7, whitish, heavily dotted and speckled with olive-brown or dull black. The 

 markings often gather about the larger end ; sometimes they entirely obscure the 

 ground color. Av. size, .86 x .62 (21.8 x 15.8). Season: Alarch-September; 

 several broods. 



General Range. — "Nearly the whole of Europe, but re]jlaced in Italv by P. 

 italicc, extending eastward to Persia and Central Asia, India, and Ceylon" 

 (Sharpe). "Introduced and naturalized in America, Australia, New Zealand, 

 etc." (Chapman). 



Range in Washington. — As yet chiefly confined to larger cities and railroad 

 towns, but spreading locally in farming sections. 



Authorities. — Rathbun, Auk. A'ol. XIN. Apr. 1902, p. 140. Ra. Kk. B. E. 

 Specimens. — B. C. 



WHAT a piece of mischief is the Sparrow ! how depraved in instinct ! 

 in presence how unwelcome! in habit how unclean! in voice how repulsive! 

 in combat how ninblike and despicable! in courtship how wanton and con- 

 temptible! in increase how limitless and menacing! the pest of the farmer! 

 the plague of the city ! the bane of the bird-world ! the despair of the 

 philanthropist! the thrifty and insolent beneficiary of misguided sentiment! 

 the lawdess and defiant object of impotent hostility too late aroused! Out 

 upon thee, thou shapeless, senseless, heartless, misbegotten tyrant ! thou 

 tedious and infinite alien ! thou myriad cuckoo, who dost by thy consuming 

 presence bereave us daily of a million dearer children ! Out upon thee, and 

 woe the day ! 



Without question the most deplorable event in the history of American 

 ornithology was the introduction of the English Sparrow. The extinction of 

 the Great Auk, the passing of the W^ild Pigeon and the Turkey. — sad as these 

 are, they are trifles compared to the wholesale reduction of our smaller birds, 

 which is due to the invasion of this wretched foreigner. To be sure he was 

 invited to- come, liut the ofTense is all the more rank because it was partly 

 human. His introduction was effected in part by people who' ought to have 

 known better, and would, doubtless, if the science of ornithologv had reached 

 its present status as long agO' as the early Fifties. The maintenance and 

 prodigious increase oi the pest is still due in a measure to the imbecile 

 sentimentality of people who build bird-houses and throw out crumbs for "the 

 dear little birdies," and then care nothing wdiether honest birds or scalawags 

 get them. Such people belong to the same class as those who drop kittens on 

 their neighbors" door-steps because they wouldn't have the heart to kill them 

 themselves, you know. 



The increase of this bird in the United States is, to a lover of birds, 



