50 



ON THE PRESENT STATUS OF PASSER 

 DOMESTICUS IN AMERICA. 



With Special Reference to the Western States 

 AND Territories. 



By dr. ELLIOTT COUES, U.S.A. 



Now that the enormous increase and rapid dispersion 

 of the European house-sparrow in America have resulted 

 in the appearance of this objectionable bird in various 

 portions of the Western States and Territories, itis time 

 to consider what means may be taken to check its west- 

 ward extension ; for the agriculturists of that portion of 

 our country have already enough to do to contend with 

 the grasshopper scourge, without having to guard their 

 crops against a plague only less formidable and imminent. 

 Should the noxious birds become as numerous and as 

 widely diffused in the West as they are already in the 

 thickly settled portions of the United States, they would 

 there prove even more destructive to the crops than they 

 are known to be in the East. For here they still live, for 

 the most part, in cities, towns, and villages, where they 

 derive their subsistence chiefly from street-garbage, 



