58 Phillips, Variation in English Sparrows. [jan. 



interest to ornithologists. Briefly, he examined by careful meas- 

 urements, 138 sparrows which were picked up during a severe 

 storm in February, 1898. 72 of these birds revived while 64 

 perished. Those birds which perished showed certain constant 

 differences which held through the three following groups, adult 

 male, young males, and females. These differences tend to show 

 that the surviving birds are shorter, weigh less, have longer wing 

 bones, longer legs, longer sternums and greater brain capacity. 

 Some of these differences are very slight and some of the measure- 

 ments are not the ones that ornithologists might pick out, e. g., 

 alar extent and total length; but there seems to be no questioning 

 the fact that the data point to a real difference in the two classes of 

 birds. Even of greater interest are the figures brought forward in 

 regard to extent of variation in these same birds. Those indi- 

 viduals with any marked tendency towards maximum and mini- 

 mum measurements nearly always fall into the "perished" class, 

 and as a group the "survivors" are more uniform and conform 

 more closely to the ideal species mean. 



J. A. Harris in the' American Naturalist ' for May, 1911, treated 

 Bumpus' figures from a biometrical standpoint and came to the 

 conclusion that they had a real significance. J. A. Allen also 

 reviewed this paper in ' The Auk.' 



In an earlier paper, (Biol. Lectures, 1898) Bumpus reported the 

 study of 1736 sparrow eggs, one half English and the other half 

 American. This large series showed that the American eggs had 

 become shorter, more spherical, and much more variable in color 

 and pattern, and the conclusion is reached that American birds 

 have been subject to a slightly changed and perhaps less selective 

 environment. 



It has been stated that albinism in the house sparrow is more 

 common here than in the old world, but I do not find any compara- 

 tive figures. 



We might expect that an imported species with a successful 

 history like the sparrow would show an increase of variability in 

 form and color. A well known example of this phenomenon is the 

 land snail. Helix nemoralis which introduced from Europe pro- 

 duced in a short time a large number of varieties unknown in its 

 home. Another case is the snail, Littornia- littoria, which in its 



