THE ENGLISH SPARROW. ; o7 
cavity anywhere. Holes in trees and electric lamps are alike favored. Eggs: 
4-7, whitish, heavily dotted and speckled with olive-brown or dull black. The 
markings often gather about the larger end; sometimes they entirely obscure the 
ground color. Av. size, .86 x .62 (21.8 x 15.8). Season: March-September ; 
several broods. 
General Range.—‘‘Nearly the whole of Europe, but replaced in Italy by P. 
itahi@, extending eastward to Persia and Central Asia, India, and Ceylon” 
(Sharpe). “Introduced and naturalized in America, Australia, New Zealand, 
etc.” (Chapman). 
Range in Washington.—As yet chiefly confined to larger cities and railroad 
towns, but spreading locally in farming sections. 
Authorities—Rathbun, Auk, Vol. XIX. Apr. 1902, p. 140. Ra. Kk. B. E. 
Specimens.—B. C. 
WHAT a piece of mischief is the Sparrow! how depraved in instinct! 
in presence how unwelcome! in habit how unclean! in voice how repulsive! 
in combat how moblike and despicable! in courtship how wanton and con- 
temptible! in increase how limitless and menacing! the pest of the farmer! 
the plague of the city! the bane of the bird-world! the despair of the 
philanthropist! the thrifty and insolent beneficiary of misguided sentiment! 
the lawless and defiant object of impotent hostility too late aroused! Out 
upon thee, thou shapeless, senseless, heartless, misbegotten tyrant! thou 
tedious and infinite alien! thou myriad cuckoo, who dost by thy consuming 
presence bereave us daily of a million dearer children! Out upon thee, and 
woe the day! 
Without question the most deplorable event in the history of American 
ornithology was the introduction of the English Sparrow. The extinction of 
the Great Auk, the passing of the Wild Pigeon and the Turkey,—sad as these 
are, they are trifles compared to the wholesale reduction of our smaller birds, 
which is due to the invasion of this wretched foreigner. To be sure he was 
invited to come, but the offense is all the more rank because it was partly 
human. His introduction was effected in part by people who ought to have 
known better, and would, doubtless, if the science of ornithology had reached 
its present status as long ago as the early Fifties. The maintenance and 
prodigious increase of the pest is still due in a measure to the imbecile 
sentimentality of people who build bird-houses and throw out crumbs for “the 
dear little birdies,’ and then care nothing whether honest birds or scalawags 
get them. Such people belong to the same class as those who drop kittens on 
their neighbors’ door-steps because they wouldn’t have the heart to kill them 
themselves, you know. 
The increase of this bird in the United States is, to a lover of birds, 
