98 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ainmunition for tliis purpose and, after considerable expenditure of 

 powder and shot, about 100,000 foxes were destroyed at a cost of about 

 30 cents apiece. Wholesale destruction with dynamite was suggested 

 and experiments with high explosives were made by the department 

 of agriculture. Cliarges of roburite (1 to 4 pounds) and gun cotton (2i 

 pounds), connected with wires so that they could be fired by an electric 

 current, were placed in the l)ranches of trees where the bats were 

 accustomed to i-oost. The bats carefully avoided the trees in which 

 explosives were hung, and when the charges were fired none were 

 killed, even among those roosting in neighboring trees. ^ 



Since nearly all the species of flying foxes are natives of the Trop- 

 ics, it is hardiy likely that they could gain a foothold in the United 

 States, except in the South, but there is a serious danger of their 

 introduction into the Hawaiian Islands by means of vessels plying 

 between Honolulu and the Orient, the South Sea Islands, and Australia. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



The house sparrow, better known in America as the English spar- 

 row {Passer domesficus), is a common bird of north central Eurasia. 

 It is said to range as far north as latitude (37^ in Europe and to lati- 

 tude 0] ° in Asia. The damage which it does in destroying fruit and 

 grain, in disfiguring buildings in cities and towns, and in driving 

 away other birds, makes it one of the worst of feathered pests. The 

 rapidity with which it increases in a new locality is scarcely more 

 remarkable than the persistency and care which have been displayed 

 in introducing it into foreign lands, in spite of the warnings of per- 

 sons familiar with its habits. It has gained a foothold on all of the 

 continents, and has been transported to some of the most distant 

 islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans. In North America it has 

 not increased very rapidly north of the Transition zone nor in the Lower 

 Austral, but wherever it has become at all abundant efforts to exter- 

 miiiait' it have been practically futile. 



The English sparrow was lii-st introduced into the United States 

 by a gentleman of Brooklyn, N. Y., who brought over eight pairs 

 from P^urope in the fall of 1850 and liberated them in the fol- 

 lowing s])ring. 'i'liese birds did not thrive, and in 1852 a second 

 importation was made. In 1854 and 1858 the sparrow was introduced 

 at Portland, Me., and in the latter year at Peacedale, R. I., and a few 

 ]>irds escai)ed at lioston, Mass. During the next decade it was im- 

 ported direct from Europe to eight other cities, and in one case 1,000 

 birds were sent to Philadelphia in a single lot; birds were also dis- 

 1ril)uted fi-om the colonies already started in this country. By 1870 

 it had ])ecome establislied as far south as Columbia, S. C, Louisville, 

 Ky., and (ralveston, Tex.; as far west as St. Louis, Mo., and Daven- 

 port, Iowa, and as far north as Montreal, Canada, thus gaining a 



'Agr. Gazette, New South Wcales. I, IbOO, p. 103. 



