25« NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



64. and soon thoroughly established itself both in New York, Boston, 

 Philadelphia, Washington and all the larger cities of the Atlantic seaboard. 

 It began spreading westward and soon occupied the whole country east 

 of the Mississippi. In the year 1879 there were no English sparrows in 

 the village of Springville, where the author's boyhood was spent. That 

 winter he visited the city of Buffalo and was delighted to see the English 

 sparrows about the streets and dooryards amid the deep snow in the 

 coldest weather. Two years later the sparrows had thoroughly established 

 themselves at Springville and before the year 1 888 had occupied practically 

 every hamlet in the State. During the last 20 years they have been work- 

 ing their way from the cities and villages into the country and nearly every 

 large farmyard is thickly inhabited by these troublesome parasites. It is 

 almost impossible for the farmer to keep them from his barns and grain 

 stacks. Large flocks of young birds accompanied by a few older indi- 

 viduals gather on the wheat and oat fields in late June, July and August, 

 doing considerable damage to the standing grain and more to the grain 

 in the shock and stack. They also attack the garden fruits, doing especial 

 damage to berries and currants. Many garden vegetables are also pecked 

 and rendered unfit for market. There is every reason to believe also 

 that the San Jose scale and other injurious parasites of our fruit trees 

 are distributed by these birds as they are continually flying from one tree 

 to another, especially about our gardens and orchards, whole flocks filling 

 the trees and shrubbery and continually flying from one farmyard to another 

 so that the scales are quickly carried from infected trees to the well-sprayed 

 orchards of the most careful horticulturist. These direct injuries done 

 by the English sparrow to our various crops, however, are not the chief 

 reason why it should be considered an injurious species, nor the litter of 

 dirt which he creates about our eaves, windowblinds and porches, but 

 the influence which he exerts upon our native bird life. As intimated 

 in other connections, the sparrow builds so early in the season that nearly 

 every available box and hollow limb is occupied by the time the bluebirds, 

 chickadees and nuthatches, martins and Tree swallows begin to think 



