No.2.] COUES ON PASSER DOMESTICUS. 183 



1877. B[rewer], T. M. The Sparrow [Passer domesticus] once more. <^ Boston Daily 

 Advertiser, Dec. 10, 1877. 



Covering a letter from Amos Binney to T. M. Brewer, testifying tliat the latter is " whoUy 

 right in the matter." PoUowed by a letter from "Z.", ■which, if accurate, would make Dr. 

 Brewer wholly wrong in the matter. 



1877. CouES, E. The Sparrow [Passer domesticus] once more. — Dr. Coucs replies to 

 Dr. Brewer. < The Gazette (Washiugton, D. C), July 8, 1877. 



The retort courteous, accepting Dr. Brewer's disclaimer of intentional offensiveness, and 

 restating his own positions. "I must not be understood to reflect in the slightest upon his 

 veracity. I only arraign his inability to understand . . . the case," &c. 



1877. CouES, E. Letters on Ornithology. . . . ISTo. 16 — The English Sparrow [Passer 

 domesticus]. <Z The Chicago Field, July 21, 1877. 



"In this communication to my friends and the pu.blic, I wish to caU serious attention to 

 a subject of growing importance, the issue of which requires to be met squarely and fairly. 

 I refer to the extraordinary multiplication of English Sparrows in this country, and to the 

 consequences, immediate and remote, of their presence in such numbers." The article is a 

 full statement of the case from the writer's standpoint. With the exception of the "Ineligi- 

 bility" article in The American ZsTaturalist for 1878, it is the most extended and complete 

 ^article which the controversy has drawn from this pen. 



1877. CouES, E., and Prextiss, D. W. [Note on Passer domesticus in Washingtou, 

 D. C] < Field and Forest, ii. No. 11, May, 1877, pp. 192, 193. 



Though not a special paper, being merely one of some "Eemarks on Birds of the District 

 of Columbia," this note is here inserted in consequence of the unexpected commotion it 

 occasioned and the stimulus it imparted to the controversy. The passages reappeared and 

 were reprinted again in numberless places with an unaccountable degxee of vitality. They 

 are here reproduced, as something of a curiosity, considering to what career they were 

 destined. 



" Passer domesticus, the nuisance, was introduced [in the District of Colum"bia] some years 

 after our list [of the Birds of the District] appeared, andnowthese rowdy little gamins squeak 

 and fight all through the city, to our great disgust. The introduction of these exotica 

 clutters up ornithology in a way that a student of geographical distribution may deplore, and 

 interferes decidedly with the 'balance of power' among the native species. Whatever may 

 be said to the contrary notwithstanding, these Sparrows do molest, harass, drive otf, and 

 other-n»se maltreat and forcibly eject and attempt to destroy various kinds of native birds, 

 which, are thereby deprived of certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of 

 happiness after their own fashion. 



"We understand that in Boston, where the Sparrows are extremely numerous, the Butcher- 

 birds (Collurio borealis) lately appeared in force, and feasted upon the birds, until the legis- 

 lators, or whoever had authority in the matter, ordered them to be systematically destroyed, 

 thus thwarting, with characteristic Jiuman short-sightedness, the first eflbrts ISTature made 

 to readjust the disturbed balance of her forces." 



J877. "DoM Pedro." Another Opinion of the Sparrows [Passer domesticus]. < For- 

 est and Stream, viii. July 5, 1377, p. 360. 

 Favorable to the birds. 



1877. Editorial. The English Sparrow [Passer domesticus].— Is he a Blessing or a 

 Nuisance? < Forest and Stream, riii. May 31, 1877, p. 261. 



Efeproduced from the Boston Transcript, with brief editorial comment. It consists of a 

 letter from T. M. Brewer to J. Galvni, city forester of Boston, Mass. , asking if he did not think 

 so and so; and the reply of the latter, that he did think thus and thus; this being intended 

 to settle the question. The article continues with a pseudonymous letter from "Arrow," 

 testifying to the Sparrows' "idleness and general incapacity." 



1877. Editorial. The Sparrows [Passer domesticus] again. < Forest and Stream, 

 Tiii. July 12, 1877, pp. 379, 380. 



An editorial make-up of extracts from various published articles for and against the birds. 

 One correspondent says: "Having dissected some thirtj- or forty birds in all, no sign of worms 

 or injurious insects was found." Auotlier calls the birds "infernal little frauds." "Dr. 

 Brewer believes the sparrows to have been of incalculable benefit." 



1877. Elliott, C. W. The Sparrows [Passer domesticus]. <^ Boston Baihj Advertiser, 



Dec. 11, 1877. 



Statement of evidence from the manager of Ceutral Park, X. T., that the Sparrow banishes 

 the measuring-worm, and does not drive away other birds. , 



