850 
HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
their young. Two years later the first 
pair of these finches were set at liberty 
near Madison Square, New York city; 
the importation was steadily repeated, the 
birds being released in the Central Park 
and at Jersey City. They were first in- 
troduced to Boston in 1868 by the city 
government, and to Philadelphia by the 
municipal authorities in 1869, and from 
these small beginnings the house-sparrow 
has been spread all over this Northern 
country wherever we have a city east of 
the Rocky Mountains, and the fluttering 
flocks of the robust, noisy little foreigner 
enliven the streets thereof in every direc- 
tion. Their numbers are nearly count- 
less. 
The object at first for the introduction 
of the house-sparrow does not seem to 
have been one of a practical suggestion, 
but rather one in the nature of sentiment. 
Since, however, the attention of the cit- 
izens was called to the great nuisance 
of the existence of canker and measure 
worms in the shade trees of the old cities 
of the Union, the fact that the house-spar- 
row would remain with us all winter, and 
feed as energetically upon the worms as 
any of our own birds—which always, with- 
out exception, left for warmer climes ey- 
ery season—the thought of practical 
application took life in encouraging the 
introduction of the English sparrow as a 
means of relief more certain than that af- 
forded by any or all of our indigenous 
finches. As soon as this became gener- 
ally understood, the little John Bull was 
distributed with great industry all over 
the country for this purpose; but as sure 
as it became numerous in any town or 
city, a spirited opposition sprang up to it, 
and exists to-day with more or less vital- 
ity in every section where the bird is fair- 
ly settled. Whole books have been writ- 
ten pro and con, and naturalists have 
waged unrelenting war upon one another, 
as they differed in estimating the value 
and the services of Pyrgita domestica ; 
but in the judgment of the writer, the en- 
tire practical bearing of the controversy 
has not been fully presented by either the 
friends or the foes of the little finch, for it 
must seem clear enough to those who will 
follow the line of argument in this article 
that while the house-sparrow is eminently 
fit and wonderfully well constituted for 
life in Northern cities, yet it is a sad row- 
dy and nuisance in the country; while in 
the former case it renders admirable serv- 
ice in destroying insect pests that disfigure 
the shady avenues of city forestry, yet in 
the latter field it can not compete with 
our native birds in entomological service 
to man, and having given good reason 
for dislike on the part of the growers of 
fruit, they are doubly incensed because 
the law will not allow them to shoot, trap, 
or destroy the enemy. 
When, however, we come to regard the 
sparrow with reference to special adapta- 
tion for city life, we are free to acknowl- 
edge that it possesses characteristics fit- 
ting it for that existence far superior to 
any of our native birds. It is hardy 
enough to withstand the shock of our 
rudest winters; and it is a source of in- 
finite relief and amusement to our people 
in the large towns all over the country, 
who, by reason of poverty or else absorb- 
ing occupation, are never able to spend 
their summers in rural districts, and who, 
were it not for the chattering little finch 
in question, would hardly know what a 
wee bird really looked like. Look again 
at the beautiful adaptation of this expa- 
triated sparrow for a residence in the be- 
grimed and smoky thoroughfares of com- 
merce in our Western cities particularly, 
where soft coal is the sole fuel and base 
for heating, lighting, and manufacturing. 
Here, amid the noise and jar of active 
business competition, why should the bird 
sing? Who has time to stop and listen ? 
And if he did, what kind of satisfaction 
could be gathered, with the banging of a 
trip-hammer on the one side and the rat- 
tling of freight trucks on the other ? 
No, it is more, much more, than right 
to ask a bird which shall agree to winter 
and summer with us in our cities of iron, 
brick, and stone to possess the power of 
song, and sing accordingly ; it would sim- 
ply be an idle and extravagant expendi- 
ture of a beautiful gift for Nature to en- 
dow any such ornithological subject with 
the faculty—contrary to her perfect laws, 
and in violation of her perfect wisdom. 
The idea of a house-sparrow trying to vo- 
calize as it perches on the coping of a 
pawnbroker’s window, while the sound of 
an auctioneer’s bell or of an elevated rail- 
way train deafens the ear, and the smoke 
of a foundry darkens the air! 
The pre-eminent qualifications of the 
sparrow for life in our busy, noisy marts 
of commerce should not be permitted in’ 
the mind of a fair observer to weigh for a 
moment heavily in its favor as an argu- 
