46 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL .SOCIETY. 



I could have secured it for a specimen I refrained, hoping to see it 

 return the following spring ; though I watched for it, I did not see it. 



Arthur H. Norton. 

 Portland, Me. 



Some Data Upon the Introduction of the House Spar- 

 row {Passei'- doincsticus) into Portland, Me. — Two instances of 

 the attempted introduction of this Sparrow into Portland are on 

 record, one in 1S54 by Col. William Rhodes, and one in 1858 by Dr. 

 Thomas Amory Deblois. The first instance is cited as Rhodes' 

 Forest and Stream, Vol. VIII, p. 165, (original record,) recited by 

 Walter B. Barrows, Bulletin No. i. Division of Ornithology and 

 Mammalogy, Department of Agriculture, p. 18. The second seems 

 to rest upon Barrows, ibid., p. 18, and is still remembered in Port- 

 land. 



Mr. Nathan Clifford Brown has recently favored me with some 

 additional data, of much value in its bearing upon the matter. 

 Another importation subsequent to Dr. Deblois, attempt was made 

 by his grandfather, Hon. J. B. Brown, who had the birds shel- 

 tered in a large vacant chamber in his house through the winter 

 season and liberated them toward spring. 



According to the Portland Press, of November 19, 1886, during the 

 early seventies the late Bishop Neely and Mr. Geo. T. Shepley lib- 

 erated a few on State Street, to wage war upon "a very destructive 

 worm." So far as known, none of these attempts at introduction 

 proved successful. Mr. Brown has given a letter to the archives of 

 the Portland Society of Natural History, of which the following is a 

 copy: 



"City of Portland, City Clerk '.s Office, [ 



May 31st, 1884. j 

 Mr. N. C. Brown, E)sq. 



The auditor informs me that he made the following payments 



in the year 1875 : 



For 50 English Sparrows, $50 



" 120 Bird Houses, 36 



