66 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
ing little fellow, there remained no longer a doubt in 
the minds of most people that the sparrow was an 
unmitigated nuisance and great fears were entertained 
that he had multiplied to such an extent as to be a 
serious menace. Here, then, is a modern instance 
under our own eyes of a victory in the struggle. If 
the sparrow has multiplied rapidly, while all the other 
birds have either only held their own or even have 
diminished in numbers, it is quite evident he must be 
better fitted to the conditions than they are. What 
are his fit points? Why does he succeed while others 
fail? The thoughtful bird-lover will have little trouble 
in understanding at least some of his victory-winning 
characteristics. How did he come to be almost the 
only bird who can live in large numbers in our great 
cities, without losing his ability to get along in less 
crowded situations? 
In the first place this interesting bird is a clannish 
fellow. He has lost the ordinary sparrow habit and 
has come to like to live in crowded groups. Seclu- 
sion is not at all to his taste, and if there are only a 
few sparrows in the neighborhood those few will most 
certainly be found living near each other. One of the 
early adaptations of the sparrow to his city surround- 
ings was the ability to find for himself a considerable 
proportion of his food in the undigested seed that 
could be picked up from the droppings of the horses. 
