22 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



digious 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 expla- 

 nation of this phenomenal invasion must be found in part in the direct 

 assistance given by man in carrying it from place to place intention- 

 ally; in part in the peculiar impetus usually given prolific species when 

 carried to a new country where the conditions for existence are in every 

 way favorable ; and in part in its exceptional adaptability to a diversity 

 of physical and climatic conditions. 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 

 will 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 re- 

 membered with 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 our 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 Spar- 

 rows became abundant in our Eastern cities they were carried inland 

 to a large number of different places. There is little doubt that if we 

 could obtain the data relating to the introduction of Sparrows at all 

 points where they are now found in the Mississippi Valley, we should 

 find that by far the larger part of these introductions had been accom- 

 plished by English, German, and French citizens, inspired by the rec- 

 ollections of the birds of their fatherland. 



In addition, the prevailing ignorance of the average American citizen 

 with regard to our native birds, joined to the totally erroneous, or at 

 least grossly exaggerated, reports of the benefits conferred by the Spar- 

 rows in New York, Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities, tended to in- 

 crease the interest which naturally attached to an imported bird, until 

 many persons went to the expense of purchasing and shipping Spar- 

 rows to considerable distances in the belief that they were insectivorous 

 birds and must prove beneficial wherever they could be naturalized. 

 In this way a veritable Sparrow "boom" was started, and the price of 

 Sparrows in is T ew York went up to such a point that many people de- 

 sirous of obtaining the birds found it cheaper to club together and im- 

 port them direct from Europe; while in many cases this was doubtless 

 done from the desire to obtain birds from the neighborhood of the irn- 



