8o SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



destructive caterpillar abounds, and continues to extend its range and 

 to increase its injuries. 



That the present attitude of this insect is so different from that which 

 it formerly held, and which it had assumed, doubtless, many years ago* 

 in conformity to a prevailing law of adjustment in nature, by which 

 each creature eventually becomes fitted to the place it holds — cannot 

 but be the result of some disturbing element operating upon it. Nor 

 can there be any reasonable doubt of what this interference has been. 



The English Sparrow the Cause of the Increase. 



The extraordinary increase of the Orgyia leiicostigma is owing to the 

 introduction and multiplication of the English sparrow, Pyrgita domes- 

 tica. 



This may seem a strange statement to many, in consideration of the 

 fact that the sparrow was imported from Europe for the express pur- 

 pose of abating the " caterpillar nuisance " in New York and some of 

 the New England cities. 



In the year 1866, two hundred sparrows were brought over from 

 England, and released in Union Park, New York. In 1867, forty pairs 

 were imported and set free in New Haven. 



It is claimed in behalf of the sparrows that they accomplished the 

 object of their introduction, and that within two year.s, they arrested the 

 " measuring-worm plague," which had for years prevailed in the streets 

 and parks of those two cities. They may have done so.f If it could 

 be shown that they rendered this service — perhaps the only good that 

 they have done — it would be insignificant in comparison with the harm 

 they have subsequently caused — even if compared alone with the pro- 

 tection given by them to the Orgyia. 



In substantiation of this charge, we present some notes of personal 

 observations made in Albany, during the year 1872, which might doubt- 

 less have been supported by similar observations in many other locali- 

 ties. 



From the rapidity of multiplication natural to the English sparrow, 

 and from the encouragement extended to them by our citizens in pro- 

 viding cages for their shelter and food during the winter, they have be- 

 come quite numerous. In several quarters of the city where they have 



*It is a native species, named and described in 1797. 



iA correspondent of the Rural Neio Yorker, in the issue for January 23, 1875, says: " At 

 the very time of their introduction into New York City and Brooklyn, a small ichneumon 

 fly had already lessened the number of span-vrorms which were so disagreeably abundant 

 in these cities, and it is very probable that the insects would have disappeared without the 

 aid of the birds." 



