96 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF MICHIGAN. 



Genus PASSER Bbiss. 



English Sparrow, male. Female, nat. size original. 



228-000 (11)12). Passer domesticns {Linn.). ^English Sparrow; European 

 Sparrow; House Sparrow; Parasite; Tramp; Hoodlum; Gammon; Philip 

 Sparrow. 

 Imported species; introduced into New York in 1850; introduced into Michigan in 

 1879; "tirst seen at Hubbardston, Ionia County, 1885" (Prof. C. F. Wheeler); very com- 

 mon; already throughout the Lower Peninsula; more common in towns but pushing 

 into the country; noxious species; '• like the poor, always with us, at Iron Mountain " 

 (E. E. Brewster); "already at Mackinac Island" (S. E. White); eats grain, often very 

 extensively, especially peas, vegetables and insects; drives away our native birds; is 

 very filthy about houses; a three cent bounty is thinning its ranks, and often, through 

 incorrect determination, the ranks of other Sparrows, etc. (see bulletin No. 62, Michi- 

 gan Experiment Station, or report of the Michigan State Board of Agricvilture, 1890, p. 

 275); breeds abundantly; it is reported that thirty young may be reared from a single 

 pair in a season; nests about cornices, etc., about houses and concealed places, "often 

 in Grand Rapids in trees, the nests being bulky and open on the side " (R. H. Wolcott); 

 eggs four or five, occasionally six, very rarely nine; soiled white specked with brown. 

 For full account of this bird-pest see excellent report by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



Genus AMMODRAMUS Swain. 



229-542a-(227). Amniodramiis samlwichensis savanna iWils.). * Savanna 

 Sparrow. 

 Not uncommon; migrant; Dr. Atkins took it May 10, 1882; "not sure that it breeds 

 in Michigan" (A. H. Boies); "Monroe County, but does not breed, seeing a bird in 

 summer is not sure proof that it breeds" (Jerome Trombley); "it is evidently a 

 transient" (Or. M. Gibbs). 



