from England and liberated in spring of 1851. As these did not thrive, he imported 

 other fifty in 1852 and set them free in Greenwood Cemetery in spring 1853. They did 

 well and multiplied rapidly. In 1854 they were introduced in Portland, Me., in 1867 

 in New Haven, Conn., and in the same year a colony was established at Galveston, 

 Tex. The year 1869 witnessed the importation, in one lot, of a thousand Sparrows by 

 the city government of Philadelphia, which is probably the largest importation of 

 Sparrows ever made to this country. The same year they were brought to Cleveland 

 and Cincinnati, and about the same time they were hberated in great numbers in 

 Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, San Francisco, etc. In many cases it is positively 

 known that the birds were brought to this country mainly from England and Germany. 

 "But no sooner had they become fairly numerous at any of these points than people 

 began to take them thence to other places, sometimes in large numbers, but more often 

 only a few pairs at a time. In most cases these few birds were carefully watched, pro- 

 tected, and fed, and so multiplied rapidly, forming new^ colonies from which these birds 

 spread steadily without assistance, and more rapidly by successive transportations by 

 man. This important factor in the rapid increase and wide distribution of the Sparrow^ 

 in America has been too generally ignored, and it is only within the past year that we 

 have come to realize something of the magnitude of the 'craze' which led so many 

 people to foster and distribute the serious pest."* .... 



"The marvelous rapidity of the Sparrow^'s multiplication, the surpassing swiftness 

 of its extension, and the prodigious size of the area it has overspread are without 

 parallel in the history of any bird. Like a noxious weed transplanted to a fertile soil, 

 it has taken root and become disseminated over half a continent before the significance 

 of its presence has come to be understood. The explanation of this phenomenal invasion 

 must be found in part in the direct assistance given by man in carrying it from place 

 to place intentionally ; in part in the peculiar impetus usually given prolific species when 

 carried to a new country where the conditions for existence are in every w^ay favorable ; 

 and in part in its exceptional adaptability to a diversity of physical and climatic con- 

 ditions. This adaptability has enabled it not only to endure alike the tropical heat of 

 Australia and the frigid winter of Canada, but to thrive and become a burdensome pest 

 in both of these widely separated lands. 



"At first sight it seems difficult to understand why man should have taken so much 

 interest in this bird, and aided in its rapid increase and spread ; but the consideration 

 of a few points bearing upon the matter toU render the case more intelligible. 



"A considerable part of our population, and especially that of the newer parts of 

 the country, consisted of Europeans who naturally remembered w^ith pleasure many of 

 the surroundings of their former homes and doubtless often longed for the familiar chirp 

 of the Sparrow. They had no strong associations connected with pur American birds, 

 and our treeless cities and uncultivated prairies contrasted strongly with the thickly 

 settled country — half garden, half city— which so many of them had left. So, as 

 opportunity offered, small lots of Sparrows and other European birds were brought to 

 this country; or after the Sparrows became abundant in our Eastern cities they were 



* "The English Sparrow in North America." Prepared under the direction of Dr. ^. Hart Merriam, ornithologist, 

 By Walter B. Barrows. Washington; Government Printing Oifiee. 1889. 



J 



