ENGLISH SPARROW 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 90 
Bird 
Immigrants 
Many kinds of foreign birds have been introduced into the United 
States with the hope of liaving them become acclimated to their new sur- 
roundings. In many cases this action was taken by persons who doul)t- 
less were actuated by the desire to have around them certain forms of 
bird-life that they had been accustomed to see and enjoy about their 
European homes before migrating to these shores. 
Linnets, Bullfinches, Skylarks, and many other birds, interesting on 
account either of their singing, or of the striking character of their 
plumage, have been liberated in the United States and Canada. Game- 
birds, especially the Hungarian Partridge, the little 
European Quail, and various species of Pheasants, 
swell the list of foreign birds. As a rule these im- 
ported species did not thrive in their new surroundings, and after a short 
time were seen no more. 
The most striking exception to this rule has been the House Sparrow 
of Europe, which in this country has acquired the incorrect title of “Eng- 
lish’’ Sparrow. The first importation of these birds appears to have been 
made in the year 1850, by the directors of the Brooklyn Institute. Eight 
pairs were that year liberated in Brooklyn, New York. In a bulletin on 
the English Sparrow issued by the Department of Agriculture in 1889 a 
statement by the Hon. Nicholas Pike is quoted, in which, he gives an 
account of this early attempt to naturalize English Sparrows in this 
country. He writes : 
“It was not till 1850 that the first eight pairs were brought from Eng- 
land to the Brooklyn Institute, of which I was then a director. We built 
a large cage for them, and cared for them during the winter months. 
Early in the spring of 1851 they were liberated, but they did not thrive.. 
“In 1852 a committee of members of the institute was chosen for 
the re-introduction of these birds, of which I was chairman. Over $200/ 
was subscribed for expenses. I went to England in 1852, on my way to 
the consul-generalship of Portugal. On my arrival 
in Liverpool I gave the order for a large lot of Spar- 
rows and song-birds to be purchased at once. They 
were shipped on board the steamship Euro pa, if I am not mistaken, in 
charge of an officer of the ship. Fifty Sparrows were let loose at the 
Narrows, according to instructions, and the rest on arrival were placed 
in the tower of Greenwood Cemetery chapel, They did not do well, so 
357 
Sparrow 
introduced 
