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This brings mc to what 1 liave termed the raison d'etre of the 

 subject chosen for this Address. Probably aljout fifteen years 

 ii<j:o (I am not sure of the exact date) our American cousins were 

 clamorous for the introduction of the Sparrow into tlieir continent 

 as a means of destroying certain noxious insects to which the 

 native birds paid little or no attention. This was eflPected, and 

 the involuntary immigrants were treated with every care and 

 iittention. Boxes were put up fur them to breed in; everything 

 was done to ensure their comfort and inci-ease. Nom", from nearly 

 all parts of the States, we hear loud demands for their destruc- 

 tion. One of the most celebrated American ornithologists, Dr. 

 ElHott Cones, leads a band of determined Americans who see in 

 our Sparrow nothing but what is bad. He has just published (in 

 N<j. 2, Vol. V. of Hayden's Bulletinof the United States Geological 

 and CJeographical Survey) a bibliography of the Sparrow-contro- 

 versy, enumerating nearly 200 articles (with reicrcnces) from 

 1867 forwards, from the time when congratulation passed into 

 doubt, and then into malediction; great expectations have been 

 followed by disappointment, and now there is a wild cry fcr 

 revenge. This cry is being rapidly echoed. We, here, do not 

 see the greater part of the American journalistic literature, but 

 enough has been seen to enable us to satisfy ourselves as to which 

 way the wind is blowing. The very last number of the " American 

 Naturalist" (February, 1880), has two very characteristic n(jtes. 

 In one of these a correspondent complains that for two years the 

 much-dreaded European cabbage-worm (the larvsB of Pieri's lajm, 

 an involuntary importation on the part of our American ft-iends) 

 has been infesting the cal)bage in his vicinity, and "that other 

 jjest, the European Sparrow" will not — or at any rate only 

 casually — devour them, though a native bird known as the 

 " Chipping Sparrow" was as busy as possible in performing that 

 duty. Dr. Coues himself heaj^s indignity upon our Spai-row in 

 the second notice, by reproducing a letter from a correspondent, 

 who says he actually found our Sparrow pulling up spi'outing 

 peas (who has iiol caught him at this in England ?), and that his 

 only feathered associate is a very oitjcctionable native bird, adding 

 " It would be diihcult to find a more disreputable pair." Such 

 a decided bias as is shown in these (and many other) notices, 

 seems to me decidedly unfair. Our American friends imported 



