FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: EVENING GROSBEAK 683 
Unlike our native birds whose place it usurps, it has no song, but is 
noisy and vituperative. It defiles buildings and ornamental trees, 
shrubs, and vines with its excrement and with its bulky nests. The 
evidence against the English Sparrow is, on the whole, overwhelming, 
and the present unfriendly attitude of the public toward it is reflected 
in our State laws. Nowhere is it included among protected birds” 
(1912, pp. 5-6). 
In New Mexico, Mr. Ligon states, it is not only abundant in towns 
and cities like Carlsbad and Albuquerque, but has invaded the rural 
districts, being found at ranches and farmhouses where it injures 
“garden truck and fruit.” It is a great pest, but in trying to get rid 
of it there is danger of confusing it with valuable native sparrows. 
For this reason it is peculiarly important that children as well as 
adults should be sure of the plumage of both the male and female 
English Sparrow. 
To help some of the smaller native birds, as House Wrens, in their 
struggle with it, nesting boxes can be given them with entrance holes 
too small for the Sparrow. The best way, however, is to reduce the 
numbers of Sparrows. As their flesh is palatable and their numbers 
make up for their small size, they could be used to advantage in 
restaurants, an adequate supply being obtained by trapping. During 
the spring and summer of 1919, Mr. Jensen destroyed 1,020 eggs on 
the campus of the Santa Fe Indian School (1923b, p. 462). The best 
methods of trapping and poisoning are given in Dr. Ned Dearborn’s 
paper on the English Sparrow as a Pest, Farmers’ Bulletin 493, which 
will be sent on application to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 
Additional Literature.—Bergtold, W. H., Auk, XXIX, 334, 1912.— 
Jensen, J. K., Auk, XLII, 591, 1925.— Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaflet 90, 
Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc. 
FINCHES, etc.: Subfamily Carduelinae 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVENING GROSBEAK: Hesperiphona vespertina warreni 
Grinnell 
Plates 63 and 75 
Description. — Male: Length (skins), about 6.7-7.3 inches, wing about 4.2-4.G. 
Female: Length (skins), about 6.5-7.3 inches, wing 4.1-4.4. Adult male: Forehead 
and line over eye yellow , crown, wings, and tail black, wings with large white patches; 
rest of upperparts grading from olive on hind-neck to yellow on rump; underparts 
greenish yellow to lemon yellow on under wing and tail coverts. Bill greenish yellow. 
Adult female: Brownish mixed with yellow, whitening on belly; throat bordered by 
dusky, wings and tail black, wings with more white. Bill “apple-green” (Birtwell). 
Young: Like adult female but duller and markings less sharply defined. Bill brown 
or horn-color. 
Range. —In summer, southern Rocky Mountain region, at least in Colorado, 
New Mexico, and central Arizona (Grinnell); in winter recorded from Colorado, 
mountains of southern Arizona and New Mexico. 
