ENGLISH SPARROW 59 



alike in the nests of both species, and the squeaky 

 little voices of both birds are indistinguishable. 

 We have to examine the tail feathers, and look 

 for a small bright yellow spot before the eyes to 

 be sure that it is a Sharp-tailed Sparrow. 



ENGLISH SPARROW 



It is easy to understand how the original mis- 

 take came to be made, in 1851 and 1852, of intro- 

 ducing this bird of the Old World among Ameri- 

 can species; but why, oh, why need the same 

 error have been repeated 

 recently in the case of the 

 Starling? It is always a 

 risk to disturb the nat- 

 ural balance of animal 



life by transferring a spe- "^English sparrow 

 cies from its native conti- Lensth 6% inches 



nent to another. To be sure, the introduction of 

 reindeer into Newfoundland has by all accounts 

 worked well; but the reindeer is a domestic ani- 

 mal directly under man's control; whereas for 

 one such success there are several disastrous 

 experiments on record, such as the importation 

 of rabbits into Australia, and that of the mon- 

 goose into Jamaica. 



Usually a species so introduced into a foreign 

 country fails in some respect to wholly adapt 

 itself to the new habitat, and soon dies out of 



