42 THE BIRDS OF SPRINGFIELD AND VICINITY. 



in captivity from summer until' early the following spring, 

 when they were let go ; many stayed near here for some 

 months after they were released, but none remained during the' 

 following winter after being let loose. 



305. Tympanuchus americanus (Reich). Prairie 

 Hen. January 28, 1S93, nearly ninety of this kind were 

 let go in different places about Springfield, all of which soon 

 disappeared. 



308. b Pediocaetes phasianellus campestris Ridgw. 



Prairie vSharp-tailed Grouse. January 14, 1892, about 

 twenty of these birds were liberated near Springfield, and 

 early the following spring two or three more ; one at least 

 sur\'ived the suminer and was shot the next autumn at East 

 Windsor, some twenty miles from the place where they were 

 released. It was apparent from the first that the experiment 

 of naturalizing them here would prove a failure, as they were 

 altogether too tame for so thickly settled countrs^ as this, 

 alighting on barns and approaching farmhouses in the most 

 reckless manner. 



493. Sturnus vulgaris lyinn. Starling. In the 

 spring of 1897, about one hundred were liberated in Forest 

 park in Springfield. Three of these were alive and well early 

 the following spring, but since then I have not seen or heard 

 of an}' of them. 



Passer domesticus. English Sparrow. I cannot 

 name the exact year the mistake was made of introducing 

 English sparrows here, but think it was either 1866 or '67. In 

 1868 boxes were provided for them in Court square, Spring- 

 field. These birds are responsible in a measure for the great 

 increase of injurious insects in the cities and large towns, as 

 wherever the Ivnglish sparrows are abundant there the native 

 birds, the natural enemies of these insects, are rare, and in the 

 remote and smaller towns, where English sparrows are not 

 numerous, there the native birds are plentiful, and in the lat- 

 ter place any observer will find less evidence of the bad work 



