178 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [YolY. 



1872. Scott, Jas. The EngiisliSi^arrow [Passer domestictis]. <^Gardener's Magazine, 

 Feb. 1872. 



• ' The English Sparro'ws get much credit for the extermination of the Span Worm in New 

 York and Philadelphia. Is there proof that they had anything to do with the matter ? . . . 

 The Span Worms have their periods, and come and go without thanks to the Sparrow." 



187.3. Lewis, E., jr. [The Naturalization of] The English Sparrow [Passer domes- 

 ticus, in America]. <^Po2)ular Science Monthly, Feb. 1873, i)p. 508, 509. 



1873? Trimble, I. P. TheEnglish Sparrow [Passer domesticiis]. <^Kewfipai)er,name 

 and date unhnoivn. 



Substance of an address before the American Institute Farmers Club, entirely unfavorable 

 to the birds. " The judgment of the Club was that the Sparrows had better be exterminated." 



1874. Axon. Sparrows [Passer domesticiis] at New Brunswick, N. J. <^Amer. 



Sjyortsm. v. Nov. 21, 1874, p. 119. 

 1874. Anon. Le Moineau domestique [Passer domesticus]. <^ Xaturaliste Canadien, 



\i. 1874, pp. 286, 287. 

 1874. Anon. Les Moiueaux Europ^ens [Passer domesticiis]. < Naturaliste Canadien, 



vi. 1874, pp. 319, 320. 

 1874. Anon. Indictment of the English Si^arrows [Passer domesticus]. <^Po]pular 



Science Monthly, v. 1874, p. 763. 

 ZSTot seen — title from Gentry. 



1874. Brewer, T. M. The European House Sparrow [Passer domesticus]. <iAme); 

 Nat. viii. No. 9, Sept. 1874, pp. 556, 557. 



The opening of the controversy on the part of Dr. Brewer. "I regret very much that a 

 naturalist generally so well informed as Dr. Coues, should aid in giving what my own observa- 

 tions compel me to believe to be an altogether wrong statement in regard to the house sparrow, 

 published in the July number of the Naturalist. ... I submit that this is too impor- 

 tant a question to be thus dismissed, especially by a gentleman like Dr. Coues, who has enjoyed 

 no opportunity of knowing from his own observations whether the opinions he is so free to 

 express are well foimded or not. The statement of Mr. Gentry I entirely discredit." Dr. 

 Brewer's own observations and opinions follow. 



1874. Brewer, T. M. The European House SpairoAv [Passer domesticus]. <^Amer. 

 Sportsm. Oct. 24, 1874, p. 49. 

 Of same tenor as his article in The American jSTaturalist, viii. No. 9, Sept. 1874, pp. 556, 557. 

 1874. Brewer, T. M. "Work of English Sjoarrows [Passer domesticus] in Boston. 

 <^Amer. Sportsm. iv. 1874, p. 179. 

 Assertion of their good offices in destroying rej^ulsive insects. 



1874. Coues, E. English Sparrows [Passer domesticus]. <^Amer. Nat. viii. No. 7, 

 July, 1874, p. 436. 



Having expressed, in the Key to North American Birds, p 146, (1872), apprehensions that 

 the Sparrows would soon begin to interfere with the native species, Dr. Coues prints a state- 

 ment from Mr. T. G. Gentry verifying the anticipation. Says Mr. Gentry, referring to Spar- 

 rows in Germantown, Pa. : "They increase so rapidly and are so pugnacious, that our smaller 

 native birds are compelled to seek quarters elsewhere." Dr. Coues continues: "I did not 

 expect the bad news quite so soon. Probably it will not be long before we hear the same com- 

 plaints from other places. . . . There is no occasion for them [the Sparrows] in this country : 

 the good they do in destroying certain insects has been overrated. I foresee the time when it 

 will be deemed advisable to take measures to get rid of the birds, or at least to check their 

 increase." 



1874. Coues, E. The Sparrow [Passer domesticus] War. <^Amer. Sportsm. v. Nov. 

 21, 1874, p. 113. 



"Several articles which have lately appeared in The American Naturalist and American 

 Sportsman, from my pen and others, indicate that a pretty lively contest is likely to result. 

 Much PS I dislike controversy, ... I am just as willing to stand corrected as to prove any- 

 body else wrong. The personal aspect of the question is a matter of the utmost indifference 

 to me. ... It is a more important question than it looks at first sight, and it is daily grow- 

 ing more so. Now let us accumulate evidence." 



