The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-19
THE ENGLISH SPARROW

By Frederic J. Haskip.

| It seems incredible that one small brown bird and his numerous family should be costing the United States millions of dollars a year, but that IS what the English sparrow is doing It is the most expensive pest the na- | ton has yet had, and the hardest to get rid of There is very little to pc said in it's favor. Where the vast | majority of the other birds in the | country have proved to be or lnVaiu- able aid to the farmer. the Engisn sparrow has proved an enemy otner birds destroy noxious insects, while | insects form a very small percentage
 The English sparrow has proved tne ] birds eat weed seeds in such quantities 1 that they save millions of dollars TOT the farmer, while the English sparrow does not care for weeds, preferrlng l good grain and grass seeds, ana ohly eats weed seeds when others are not available. And not only does 1t fall the farmer and gardner in this re- spect. but it drives away the helptui | birds and has made itself master or | inc field in many localities. Keeping always close to the home of man, the | sparrow is itself protected from the usual enemies that beset the pathways of birds.
 The English sprraow has proved the I bers of the bird world. The Annual pro | duct ofa pair averages about 24 | nestIinRs, Statisticians figuring on | this basis, and assuming that half or | these are male and half female, shows that if all these and their offspring should live, in ten years the progeny I of a single pair would be over two hundred and seventy-five and half billion birds. Happily for the nation there are disasters in the sparrow family that decrease this alarming prospect but nevertheless the number | is large enough. In the recent bird survey of Illinois it was found that the summer population Of Engisn | sparrows approximated 5,50OOO0 and that this pest formed IS per cent or the bird population of that state. AS 1t is now found in all the states, In more or less varying numbers, 1t Is l safe to take Illinois population as an average and from that 1t will be seen | that with a possible general bird pop uIation of 1,414,000,000 in the United States, there are approximately 254,- OOO,O 900 sparrows now andustriously destroying grain, fruit and shrubbery. and driving away the birds that might protect these things.
 The importation of this pert brazen lfellow was one. of the biggest mis- | takes ever made in GLis country. Some misguidede people of the north eastern states raised money in 1850 to bring over some sparrows from Eu- | rope in the hope that they might eat the gipsy moth and other insect pests that were destroying valuable trees. | The example of Europe lay before these people. then an 1t does today, and they might have profited by it, but they didn't. The English sparrow, proper ly named the house sparrow, is a city | TAa A4k for the country until 1t has been crowded out by its kind. Then it moves to some smaller town or city. | Sparrows ae not above travelling by train, and they reached St. John, New Brunswick in 1883 coming by train from the west. It Is supposed that they often go to roost in empty grain cars, and are sent out into other states or localities in the night. A number of towns in the United States have received uninvited colonies in this way. The new arrivals seem to experienue no homesickness when ar irving in this fashion, but settle down to their noisy lives, apparently con- first tl4at were brought into New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Massach usetts. Connecticut, Texas. Ohio, Pennsylvania Utah, Wisconsin and Iowa. came direct from Europe, having been bought at a good price and sometimes having had special messengers sent for them. From points in these states they were first sold into other states, secretives for 8 dollar apiece, and when prices went up it was found cheaper to send to Europe for them. Though they are prevalent allover Europe. they were brought here chiefly from England, hence the name English Sparrow, in- | stead of the real name. hous sparrow.
 The directors of the Brooklyn In- stitute are said to be responsible for the first sparrow brought over. In 1850 they brought over eight pairs, and in view of the present sparrow population 1t Is interesting to note that they were zealuosly cared for in l spring of 1851 they were liberated but they didn't tn rive. This is possibly the only record of the kind Tn the history of this "Passer Domesticus'' branch of the sparrow family. So in 1852 1t was decided to send for more birds. Honorable Nicholas Pike, con sul-general to Portugal. was asked to attend to the matter as he went through England, and $2OO was rais- ! ed for the purchase and travelling ex- penses of the fancied blessings that were to be brought over. These were liberated the following spring and the old records state they did well and multiplied", and this may be said to be. in brief, the history of sparrows | ever since. Other eastern states, fired by New York's example brought in house sparrows and since then they have swept across the whole country, i in droves. By 1886 they were estab lished in thlrtyfive states and five territories, occupying an area of 1885, 900 square miles a year. It has seem- ed easier to check a Chelsea fire or an Ohio Valley flood.
 Philadelphia. unwilling to do things on a niggardly basis even in those days brought over the biggest impor tation ever made-a thousand at one time. It Is possible that the regret i' the biggest the Quaker City ever ex- perienced At any rate, there was some attempt to get even. for in 1886 sparrows were slaughtered by thou sands and sold as reed birds in the | restaurants there. The next veal New York indirectly got back little of the several hundred dollars spent in bringing them in, for in Albany they were selling in the markets fol a dollar a hundred. or tewnty- five cents per dozen.
 This sparrow pest, like a perairi