THE ENGLISH SPAREOW HAS ARRIVED IN DEATH 

 VALLEY: AN EXPERIMENT IN NATURE^ 



The English sparrow first became well established in the 

 United States in 1860-1864 in the vicinity of New York City. 

 Several small plants had been made in other Atlantic cities 

 within the few years preceding, but practically all of these are 

 definitely known to have failed. The original stock is in nearly 

 all the cases of importation known to have been obtained in Eng- 

 land. Its spread through the eastern United States after once 

 established was phenomenal; its rate of invasion towards the 

 west only slowed up at about the 100th meridian, and this, sig- 

 nificantly enough, is about at the line limiting a great many spe- 

 cies of native eastern birds toward the west and of native western 

 birds toward the east. Nevertheless, the English sparrow ulti- 

 mately crossed this barrier, constituted by change in humidity, 

 and it has continued expanding its range until it exists now in 

 nearly every part of every state in the Union. It has also ex- 

 tended throughout southern Canada and has become well settled 

 in the Hawaiian Islands. 



In California the English sparrow was first noticed in 1871 or 

 1872, in San Francisco, and it quickly thereafter appeared in 

 many of the towns in the west-central part of the state. But it 

 was very slow to enter southern California. It did not reach 

 Los Angeles for nearly thirty-five years, in 1907 ; and San Diego 

 was not reached until 1913. To-day it is familiar in practically 

 every town "south of Tehachapi." Among the places in Cali- 

 fornia now inhabited by the English sparrow, to designate some 

 of those showing extremes of climate as regards temperature 

 and humidity, are Brawley, Imperial County, and Sisson, Sis- 

 kiyou County; Needles, San Bernardino County, and Eureka, 

 Humboldt County. 



In 1917 the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology under- 

 took as field work for that year a study of the vertebrate animal 

 life of the Inyo region of southeastern California. In connec- 

 tion with this work it was the writer's not unpleasant fortune to 

 spend the iiiontli of April in Death Valley. What was his sur- 



1 fontrilaitioti f iniii t!u' Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University 



468 



