THE TREE SPARROW. 175 



plumage, so that specimens from the most distant 

 countries are undistinguishable. 



Of late years it has found its way to the United 

 States, so that its geographical range is now very 

 extensive. Dr. J. C. Merrill, of the U.S. Army, 

 writing in the American Naturalist for January 

 1876, says: " The resemblance of the species to 

 the English House Sparrow has led me to be on 

 the watch for it since the introduction of the latter, 

 but without success, until I found it in St. Louis, 

 Mo., last spring. Here I found the new species 

 abundant, but was unwilling to take any until the 

 breeding season was over. Four skins, sent to Mr. 

 G. M. Lawrence, of New York, are pronounced by 

 him to agree accurately with the plate and descrip- 

 tion of this species. He also informs me that, about 

 ive years ago, Mr. Eugene Schieffelin noticed fifty 

 >r sixty of these birds in the store of a bird importer 

 in New York, where they were unrecognised ; and 

 these were probably afterwards sold as, or with, 

 Passer domesticus" 



This, no doubt, is the explanation of their 

 presence in the United States, where, now that 

 Sparrows have been so commonly imported, they 



