District of Columbia, and two provinces of Canada, and the end of its migration 

 was not yet. Between 1870 and 1880 it had extended its habitat over 15,000 square 

 miles, and in 1873 Salt Lake City and San Francisco had been reached by this rapid 

 colonizer. Even this extended area did not satisfy its migratory instincts, for, 

 during the next five years it established itself in more than 500,000 square miles 

 of territory, and by 1886 thirty-five states and five territories, practically all of 

 the country east of the Mississippi (except parts of three southern states), as 

 well as eight western states, had been invaded and occupied. Its range of habita- 

 tion now covered, including nearly 150,000 square miles in Canada, over 1,000,000 

 square miles, and by 1898 only three states (Wyoming, Nevada, and Montana) 

 and three territories (New Mexico, Arizona, and Alaska) were free. It pre- 

 sumed that by this time it has reached even those districts, and its occupancy of 

 the entire United States is complete. 



Besides the United States, New Zealand and Australia have been much dam- 

 aged by the "English" sparrow, it being regarded in certain -A.ustralian colonies 

 as a nuisance almost equal to the rabbit. Although introduced by an acclimatiza- 

 tion society on the North Island of New Zealand in 1866, it threatened, sixteen 

 years later, to spread over the whole island, since it appeared in the most inac- 

 cessible places, contrary to its usual preference for cities and towns. This was 

 no doubt due to overcrowding, the result of its rapid propagation. Having been 

 carried to Victoria in 1865, it was not long before it discovered and occupied 

 Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania, although thus far 

 it has been excluded from Western Australia by vigorous legal measures prohibit- 

 ing its introduction. It will no doubt reach there in due time on its own trans- 

 portation. It has already migrated to many other parts of the world and may 

 be regarded as a veritable little cosmopolite. It is also present on Mauritius, in 

 the Indian Ocean, and having reached Honolulu twenty years ago, it is fair to 

 assume that if it has not already "prospected" our possessions in the Philippine 

 Islands, it will do so very soon. On the Atlantic side it is found in Bermuda, 

 the Bahamas, and Cuba, and possibly Porto Rico, although its presence there has 

 not yet been reported. Its conduct in Bermuda since it was sent there in 1874 

 has been just as objectionable as elsewhere, so that, after at first punishing with a 

 prescribed fine anyone who attempted its destruction, the lawmakers themselves 

 were obliged, ten years later, to change their code by placing a legal premiim: on 

 its extermination. Although the area of the islands is less than 20 square miles, 

 nearly $3,000 was expended in two years for this purpose with no appreciable 

 effect, so numerous had become the progeny of this prolific profligate. 



Although the house sparrow is now very generally distributed over Pennsyl- 

 vania, it first appeared in the Cumberland Valley (Chambersburg) of that state 

 about 1872. according to the observations of Mr. Davidson Greenawalt, and 

 many have emigrated there from .^hippensburg, where one pair was carried from 

 Philadelphia about 1868. 



It considers itself at home everywhere, apparently, and evidently comes to 



432 



