This bird is useful to man because he gets his living from the insects 
of the air, the caterpillars of the trees, and from the grasshoppers on the 
ground. 
ENGLISH SV ARROW— (Passer domesticus.) 
Crown gray, bordered from the eye backward and on the nape by 
chestnut; portions of the wing tipped with white; back streaked with 
black and chestnut; middle of the throat and breast black; sides of 
throat white. ,t • i c» ^ ;„ 
The English sparrow was first introduced into the United States in 
i8,o when eight pairs were brought over from England to Brooklyn, 
New York. During the next twenty years these birds were imported m 
large numbers, being distributed in the cities of the eastern states 
chiefly, but also in Ohio and Texas. They were introduced for the 
purpose of destroying canker worms and all kinds of leaf-devourmg 
insects Like many featherless bi-peds which flock to our shores, these 
birds also seem to have laid aside the habits and customs of their native 
country But in the case of the bird, the change has been for the worse 
instead of the better. In the old country, a beneficial insect destroyer m 
the new, he has become a pest on account of certain well-known char- 
acteristics The sparrow destroys the buds and blossoms of fruit and shade 
trees- he eats the fruit of orchard and garden, being especially fond of 
peas; he attacks the grain fields from the time the grain is put into the 
ground until it is gathered into the barns. The stomach of a single 
cuckoo examined by experts at Washington contained as many insects 
as were found in the stomachs of over five hundred English sparrows. 
Possibly these faults of the sparrow would be overlooked if it were not 
for the fact that another charge, the most serious of all, is made against 
him It is this: that he drives away the native birds from the orchards, 
shade-trees, gardens and buildings. Being quarrelsome and pugnacious 
by nature, the English sparrow considers the rightful inhabitants of the 
haunts which he pre-empts as intruders and forthwith proceeds to drive 
them from the neighborhood, so that in many places the incessant 
chattering of this noisy sparrow is heard instead of the sweet and pleas- 
in<. songs of other birds. Bluebirds, wrens, purple martins, native spar- 
