40 THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



No. 17. 



ENGLISH SPARROW. 



Introduced. Passer domesticus (Linn.). 



Synonyms. — House Sparrow; Domestic Sparrow; Hoodlum. 



Description. — Adult male: Above ashy gray; middle of back and scapulars 

 heavily streaked with black and bay; tail dusky; a chestnut patch behind eye 

 spreading on shoulders; lesser wing-coverts chestnut; middle coverts bordered 

 with white, forming a conspicuous white bar during flight ; remainder of wing 

 dusky with bay edging; below ashy gray or dirty white; a black throat-patch 

 continuous with lores and fore-breast; bill and feet horn color. Adult female: 

 Brownish rather than gray above; bay edging lighter; no chestnut, unmarked 

 below. Length 5.50-6.25 (139.7-158.8) ; wing 3.00 (76.2); tail 2.20 (55.9); 

 bill .50 (12.7). Sexes of about equal size. 



Recognition Marks. — "Sparrow size"; black throat and breast of male; 

 female obscure brownish and gray. 



Nest, a globular mass of grass, weeds and trash, heavily lined with feathers, 

 placed in tree and with entrance in side; or else heavily lined cavity anywhere. 

 Holes in apple trees and crannies in shale banks are favorite places. Hggs, 4-7, 

 whitish, heavily dotted and speckled with olive-brown or dull black. The mark- 

 ings often gather about the larger end; sometimes they entirely obscure the 

 ground color. Av. size, .86 x .62 (21.8 x 15.8). 



General Range. — "Nearly the whole of Europe, but replaced in Italy by F. 

 italiae, extending eastward to Persia and Central Asia, India, and Ceylon" 

 (Sharpe). "Introduced and naturaHzed in America, Austraha, New Zealand, 

 etc." (Chapman). 



Range in Ohio. — ^"The first importation of this pest into the state directly 

 from Europe was into Cleveland in 1869, twenty pairs. During the same year 

 thirty-three pairs were taken from New York to Cincinnati and Warren. Then 

 followed importations into Marietta, 1870; Coshocton and Portsmouth, 1874; 

 Steubenville about 1880 or 1881 ; Wapakoneta about 1882, which seems to have 

 been the last importation. Since that time it has spread well over the state, 

 in the more settled districts even invading the country places and farm buildings, 

 until the tendency to nest in the woods grows strong" (Jones). 



WITHOUT question the most deplorable event in the history of American 

 ornithology was the introduction of the English Sparrow. The extinction of 

 the Great Auk, the passing of the Wild Pigeon and the Turkey, — sad as these 

 are, they are trifles compared to the wholesale reduction of our smaller birds, 

 which is due to the invasion of that wretched foreigner, the English Sparrow. 

 To be sure he was invited to come, but the offense is all the more rank because 

 it was partly human. His introduction was efifected in part by people who 

 ought to have known better, and would, doubtless, if the science of ornithology 

 had reached its present status as long ago as the early fifties. The maintenance 

 and prodigious increase of the pest is still due in a measure to the imbecile 



