312 VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY 



comparatively straight, and simulate the strings of the Ijnre. In 

 color these birds are for the most part of a soft brown, and they are 

 not conspicuous in their natural haunts. 



The sparrows (Fig. 159, B) are usually placed last in the systems 

 of classification because they are believed to be the most modern 

 type. They are the most numerous and the most familiar of all birds. 

 They are usually small inconspicuously colored birds, characterized 

 by strong, hard, conical bill, compact form and comparatively short 

 body, tail, and wings. Possibly the most significant event in the 

 history of modern- birddom was the invasion of North America by 

 the English Sparrow in 1852. It first landed in Brooklyn and spread 

 from there over the North Eastern Atlantic States. In a half century 

 it had spread over a large part of the continent and is now the most 

 numerous bird species in the world. The English sparrow is a mod- 

 ernist among birds and leads us to discuss the probable future of the 

 bird tribe. 



THE FUTURE OF BIRDS 



It will have been noted that most of the orders of birds have some 

 very generalized types and some highly specialized types. One could 

 select from nearly every order a representative that is conservatively 

 proportioned and has simple bill and generalized feet. In each order 

 we also find certain types with exaggerated proportions, overspecial- 

 ized bill or feet and highly colored or elaborate plumage. If we may 

 rely on the uniformity of nature, we may expect the events of the 

 past to repeat themselves, and if they do, these specialized birds 

 will become still more senescent and, unable to reverse the course of 

 specialization, become extinct; it is all well enough to be handsome 

 and brilliant of plumage or unduly long of leg or large of bill, but 

 perhaps the birds thus endowed will pay for it in contributing to 

 the prehistoric fauna of the next geologic age; while the sparrow and 

 his ilk will still dispute with other dominant races the domains of 

 earth and tree and air. It is as much as a bird's life is worth now-a- 

 days to have beautiful or elaborate plumage, for primitive man must 

 have its plumes for the adornment of his primitive mate; and he 

 gets what the mate desires whether he has to hunt the trackless for- 

 ests for it, or merely pays an exorbitant milliner's bill; a type of bill 

 quite unknown among birds. Safety for the bird of to-day lies in 

 homeliness of aspect, adaptability as to environment and food, and 



