380 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— OSCINES. 



dark chestnut or niahogauy space beliind eye, spreading on side of neck. Lesser wing-coverts 

 deep chestnut; median tipped with white, forming a conspicuous wing-bar, bordering which is a 

 black line. Greater coverts and inner quills with central black field bordered with bay. Tail 

 dusky-gray, unmarked. Lower parts ashy, gray or whitish ; chin and throat jet black, spread- 

 ing on the breast and lores, bordered on side of neck with white. Bill blue-black ; feet brown. 

 Wing about 3.00 ; tail 2.50. Adult?: Above, brownish-gray ; streaking of back light ochrey- 

 brown and black; wing-edgings liglit ochrey-brown, the white bar impure. No black, ma- 

 hogany, or white on head ; a pale brown postocular stripe ; bill blackish-brown, yellowish at 

 base below. Varies endlessly in purity or dinginess of coloration. Young ^ at first like 9 • 

 Europe, etc. Repeatedly iu)ported since 1858, and especially in the sixties, during a craze 

 which even affected some ornithologists, making people fancy that a granivorous conirostral 

 species would rid us of insect-pests, this sturdy and invincible little bird has overrun the whole 

 country, and proved a nuisance without a redeeming quality. The original ofi'ender in the 

 case is said to have been one Deblois, of Portland, Me., in 1858; but the pernicious activity 

 of Dr. T. M. Brewer affected the city fathers of Boston in 1868-69, and even the Smith- 

 sonian Institution at Washington, about the same years. New York had the sparrow-fever 

 in 1860-64, and Philadelphia was not as slow as usual in catching the contagion, in 1869. 

 There is no need to follow the sad record further. Well-informed persons denounced the 

 bird without avail during the years when it might have been abated, but protest has long 

 been futile, for the sparrows have had it all their own way, and can afford to laugh at 

 legislatures, like rats, mice, cockroaches and other parasites of the human race which we 

 must endure. This species, of all birds, naturally attaches itself most closely to man, and 

 easily modifies its habits to suit such artificial surroundings ; this ready yielding to condi- 

 tions of environment, and pi'ofiting by them, makes it one of the creatures best fitted to 

 survive in the struggle for existence under whatever conditions man may afford or enforce; 

 hence it wins in every competition with native birds, and in this country has as yet developed 

 no counteractive influences to restore a disturbed balance of forces, nor any check whatever 

 upon its limitless increase. Its habits need not be noted, as they are already better known to 

 every one than those of any native bird whatever, but few realize how many million dollars 



the bird has already cost us. Nest 

 anywhere about buildings, also in 

 tites, bushes, and vines, built of any 

 rubbish, usually lined with feathers, 

 and making a bulky, unsightly ob- 

 ject amidst dirty surroundings ; eggs 

 indefinitely numerous, usually 5 to 

 7, about 0.90 X 0.60, dull whitish 

 thickly marked with dark brown and 

 1)1 utral tints ; several broods a year 

 aie raised, as the birds breed in and 

 out of season. 



1* monta'nus. (Lat. moutinuis, of 

 mountains. Fig. 240.) Mountain 

 Sparrow^. European Tree Spar- 

 row. Somewhat like the last, but 

 smaller and otherwise dift'erent. ^ : 

 Crovv-n and nape a peculiar purplish- 

 brown. Lores, chin, and throat 

 black, the throat-patch narrow and short, not spreading on breast, contrasted with ashy- 

 white on side of head and neck; ear-coverts blackish. ^Ba-^^k and scapulars streaked with 



P. m07i/(mus ; reduced. (From 



