ENGLISH SPARROW 3 



and Iowa City, Iowa, 1881. He gives a long list of places in which 

 the sparrows were introduced, probably by transplanting from other 

 places in the United States, and adds: "A study of these tables shows 

 that even before 1875 there were many large sparrow colonies through- 

 out the United States, east of the Mississippi, as well as several in 

 Canada, one or more in Utah, one at Galveston, Tex., and probably 

 another in San Francisco, Cal. There were small colonies also in 

 eastern Iowa and in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska." 



With all these importations and transplantings, it is no wonder that 

 the English sparrow was soon able to overrun the whole country. 

 Barrows (1889) estimated that by 1886 the sparrow was "found to 

 have established itself in thirty-five States and five Territories." It 

 spread and increased very rapidly. Between 1870 and 1875 it spread 

 over 500 square miles; from 1875 to 1880 it spread over 15,640 square 

 miles; between 1880 and 1885 it spread over 500,760 square miles; and 

 in the year 1888 alone it added 516,500 squares to its range. This range 

 was naturally spotty, there being many portions of each State that 

 had not been invaded, and the centers of abundance were near the 

 points of introductions. For example, although it made its first 

 appearance in California, in the San Francisco Bay region, in 1871 or 

 1872, it extended its range very slowly during the next 20 years into 

 adjacent regions; it apparently did not become established in Los 

 Angeles County until about 1906 and in San Diego County about 

 1913, according to Grinnell and Miller (1944), but by 1915 it "had 

 spread to virtually all sections of the State, at least locally in towns 

 and about ranches, inclusive of desert areas and the larger islands 

 offshore." 



It evidently invaded Arizona in 1903 and 1904, and New Mexico 

 about 1909. Finley (1907) reported it at Portland, Oreg., in 1889, 

 but Rathbun tells me that it did not appear in Seattle until 1897 and 

 Bellingham, Wash., in 1900. It spread through Colorado between 

 1895 and 1906. 



E. R. Kalmbach (1940) writes: " At present the range of the English 

 sparrow in North America covers the entire continental United States 

 except Alaska, all thickly settled parts of the contiguous Canadian 

 Provinces, and similar areas in Mexico south at least as far as San 

 Luis Potosi and Guadalajara in Jalisco. * * * The most northerly 

 point of occurrence of which the writer has record is Two Islands 

 Indian Village on the Mackenzie River, 30 miles below Fort Simpson, 

 Mackenzie, latitude 62 N. * * * The bird is known also at Atha- 

 baska Landing in northern Alberta and is present in most of the 

 settlements in the coastal region of British Columbia." 



Leonard Wing (1943), in comparing the spread of the English spar- 

 row with that of the starling, states that "the English sparrow spread 



