838 The Sparrow-like Birds 



both sexes in some species have the throat black ; the wings are provided 

 with one or two white bars. This genus is well represented over the greater 

 part of the Old World, the species being mostly well-known birds which fre- 

 quent the neighborhood of towns and villages, though a few are found in open 

 country away from houses. Of these the best-known is of course the common 

 House Sparrow (P. domesticus), which is familiar alike in town and country 

 throughout Europe generally, northern Africa, and most of Asia, extending as 

 far east as Cochin China and Ceylon. It has also been introduced and become 

 thoroughly naturalized in other parts of the world, notably New Zealand and 

 the United States, where it has become an intolerable nuisance. The English 

 Sparrow, as it is more commonly called here, was first introduced at Brooklyn, 

 New York, about 1851 or 1852, and for the first twenty years was practically 

 confined to the cities of the Atlantic States, but since that date it has spread like 

 a pernicious tidal wave over most of the United States and Canada. Active, 

 vociferous, pugnacious, and thoroughly adaptable, it has evidently come to 

 stay, notwithstanding the warfare that is constantly waged against it. It is 

 extremely prolific, rearing three or four broods each season, and Mr. W. B. 

 Barrows has computed that the progeny of a single pair might amount in ten 

 years to 275,716,983,698 ! It has displaced to a large extent many of the native 

 birds, such as Bluebirds, Wrens, Swallows, etc., and even made it necessary 

 to change the architecture of buildings, at least as regards exterior ornamen- 

 tations, since when ornate these are made use of as nesting sites by the Spar- 

 rows. Its lack of song, destructiveness to grain, fruit, buds and blossoms of 

 fruit trees, grapes, and a dozen other things combine to make it thoroughly 

 detested, and should stand as a warning against the indiscriminate introduction 

 of birds from one country to another. 



European Tree Sparrow. Rather closely related is the European Tree 

 Sparrow (P. montana), which differs principally in its smaller size, purplish 

 brown crown, and similar plumaged sexes. It is found throughout Europe 

 generally and eastward through Asia to China and Japan, and south along the 

 Malay Peninsula to Java and the Philippines, and has been introduced into the 

 United States near St. Louis, Missouri. In Europe, according to Dresser, it is 

 not so often found near habitations as it is in the fields and groves, whereas in 

 the east it to some extent takes the place of the House Sparrow and is found chiefly 

 around habitations. It is cheerful and quite as active, though hardly so noisy, 

 its note being similar but softer, and the male has a regular song. In Europe 

 it places its nest usually in trees, but in the east it nests in holes about houses 

 and other buildings. 



Snowflakes, or Snow Buntings. Emblematic of the frozen north and fitting 

 accompaniment of whirling snows are the beautiful Snowflakes, or Snow Bunt- 

 ings (Plectra phenax) of the Arctic and sub- Arctic districts of the Northern 

 Hemisphere. They are medium-sized, long-winged, and small-billed terrestrial 

 Finches, in which the plumage is largely and sometimes chiefly snow-white, 

 though there is considerable difference between the summer and winter plu- 

 mage. Thus in the Common Snowflake (P. nivalis} the adult male in summer 



