eres UE Ls BIO UNS Be Ura tablet 3 
area from their introduction in 
New York as early as 1851 (Mc- 
Kinley 1960:21). (I could find noth- 
ing as to the fate of the 20 pair 
released in 1870 in St. Louis so we 
can assume this population died 
off.) These more aggressive birds 
drove the established tree spar- 
rows out of the city proper 
(Jones 1942:5). Widmann (1878) 
states that twelve bird boxes, for- 
merly occupied by European Tree 
Sparrows, were vacated as a re- 
sult of this invasion. 
The European Tree Sparrow is 
a smaller trimmer bird than its 
cousin. The sexes are alike. This 
species has a chocolate brown cap, 
a white collar extending almost 
around the nape, a black spot on 
a white cheek, two white wing 
bars) and a black patch on the 
throat. Juvenile birds are nearly 
like the adult but with colors sub- 
dued. This species is more retiring 
ana prefers rural or suburban 
areas to urban life; therefore, in- 
jucreasing urbanization forced not 
only the House Sparrow, but the 
European Tree Sparrow to seek 
greener pastures elsewhere. 
As a consequence it retired to 
Tower Grove Park and Shaw’s 
Garden and established a_ fair- 
sized colony. In the 1890s_ this 
colony was forced to vacate, owing 
to encroachment by man and ul- 
timately the English Sparrow. By 
this time the colony had grown to 
such proportions that factions 
could separate and form a number 
of colonies. Each of these colonies 
retired into various areas of the 
suburbs, notably St. Charles and 
Creve Coeur Lake westward to 
Washington, Missouri. 
Some factions crossed the river 
into Illinois where they became 
established in Alton, Grafton, East 
St. Louis and Belleville (Widman 
1907:5). In 1922, Gault stated that 
they had been reported from the 
four Illinois counties opposite St. 
Louis — Calhoun, St. Clair, Her- 
sey and Monroe. 
In 1925, Pindar found it to be 
an irregular bird at any season in 
Fulton County, Kentucky (Ben- 
nitt, 1932:57). He speculated that 
these birds rode the river boats to 
this locality since the house spar- 
row had always haunted these ves- 
sels. The river boat was a fine 
means of distributing and acclimat- 
ing foreign species during this 
period, and could have led to their 
discovery: in Boone and Calhoun 
Counties in April 1934 by Kirksey 
(Jones 1942:5). 
In 1942, a large concentration 
accumulated near Horseshoe Lake, 
Ill. (Jones 1942:6). The birds 
spread throughout St. Louis and 
St. Charles Counties. In the 1950s 
the center of abundance spread 
to Grand Marias State Park, East 
St. Louis (Wilhelm 1959:3). For 
years the largest concentration had 
been at Horseshoe Lake. There 
was a flock of 250 birds in 1950 
and 137 in 1957 in this area where- 
as in Grand Marias State Park, 
there was one flock of 125 birds 
and in 1957 there were three flocks 
of 150, 175, and 25 respectively 
(Wilhelm 1959:3), showing a mi- 
gration of this center of abundance. 
(This author seems to believe that 
a flock with an excess of 25 birds 
gradually becomes its own entity.) 
By this time the European Tree 
Sparrow had become rare-to-ab- 
sent in many of its former local- 
ities (Wilhelm 1959:3) and began 
spreading northeasterly. 
A good example of a shift in 
the population within a fifteen 
mile radius can be observed by the 
Christmas Bird Counts of Pere 
Marquette Area (Table I) (Audu- 
bon Field Notes 1949-1961). At this 
park in Calhoun County, the birds 
were in evidence until about 1957 
when none were reported. In 1958 
and 1959 only a remnant was left, 
and since that time none have 
