IN AMERICA, 55 



1874. COUES, E, English Sparrows [Passer domesticus], 

 Ainer. Nat. viii. No. 7, July, 1874, p. 436. 



Having expressed, in the Key to North American 

 Birds, p. 146 (1872), apprehensions that the sparrows 

 would soon begin to interfere with the native species. Dr. 

 Coues prints a statement from Mr. T. G. Gentry, verify- 

 ing the anticipation. Says Mr. Gentry, referring to 

 sparrows in Germantown, Pa. : ' They increase so rapidly, 

 and are so pugnacious, that our smaller native birds are 

 compelled to seek quarters elsewhere.' Dr. Coues con- 

 tinues : ' I did not expect the bad news quite so soon. 

 Probably it will not be long before we hear the same 

 complaints from other places. . . . There is no occasion 

 for them (the sparrows) in this country : the good they 

 do in destroying certain insects has been overrated. I 

 foresee the time when it will be deemed advisable to take 

 measures to get rid of the birds, or at least to check their 

 increase,' 



1874. Coues, E. The Sparrow [Passer domesticus] 

 War. Amer. Sportsm. v. Nov. 21, 1874, p. 113. 



' Several articles which have lately appeared in The 

 American. Naturalist and American Sportsmaji, from 

 my pen and others, indicate that a pretty lively contest 

 is likely to result. Much as I dislike controversy ... I 

 am just as wiUing to stand corrected as to prove anybody 

 else wrong. The personal aspect of the question is a 

 matter of the utmost indifference to me. . . .It is a more 

 important question than it looks at first sight, and it is 

 daily growing more so. Now let us accumulate 

 evidence.' 



1874. GEiNTRY, T. G. English Sparrows [Passer domes- 

 ticus]. Amer. Nat. viii. No. 11, Nov. 1874, pp. 

 667-672. 



Attesting the molestation of various American native 

 birds by the sparrows, in amplification of his previous 

 testimony to the same effect {tom. cit. p. 436) ; and de- 

 nouncing as groundless the charges of misrepresentation 

 brought against E. Coues and himself by T. M. Brewer 

 {totn. cit. p. 556). The article is notable among those 

 opening the controversy. 



