Evening star., 1915-02-21
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SPARROWS I'm WASHINGTON

7 n the recent bird census conducted
under the supervision and lnsplra-
ton of the Department of Agriculture
with the aid of bird lovers and enthu-
siasts throughout the United States no
consideration was paid 20 that oiro
which in popular parlance is caileo
the English sparrow. 1t might sec
that enough generations of this blrd
have come into bel and have passed
away in the United States to have le
looked upon as naturalized, but sui
people interested in birds continue 10
look upon this species of the sparrow
as aliens. In the census enumeration
the numerous sparrows marked as h;;-
tive species ', ere taken into account.
1t may be that one reason for the evil
dent slight to the English sparrow was
because of the difficulty of ma king a
census of him and her or them.
The estimate reached by the Depart
ment of Agriculture was that our ma
tive field bird population is something
over two billions, exclusive of spar
rows. or about one thousand to the
square mile of land not planted to
crops. The most numerous of these
birds were the robins. estimated as
averaging fifty pairs to the square
mile east of the Mississippi river. The
pairs to the acre was reported in the
suburban area of the District of Co
lumbia. and the lowest estimate was
one pair for every three acres in Mon
tana, the forest birds being much less
numerous than the birds which dwell
in open lands.
The history of the English sparrow
in Washington goes back to 1872, in
which year, under the supervision of
Col. o. e. Babcock, in charge of pubic
buildings and grounds, about one hun
dred pairs of these birds were purchased
and set free in the parks of Washing
ton, a number of birdhouses haviI.S
been built and set up in trees for the
accommodation of the new arrivals.
The importation of these birds to the
United States began in the year before
the civil war. and by 1866, according to
sparrow historians, there were large
colonies in Central Park, New York,
and in the parks of Brooklyn, Hartford
New Haven, Boston and Philadelphia
The sparrow had very active and
capable press agents, who heralded him
as bird of promise In his early
career in this country he seems to have
comported himself in the parks as
self-respecting bird might be expected
to do, and to have kept off the streets.
dTOuSeu no WOTQ OF protest., ana up
to 1872, the time of his Introduction
into Washington. his real character
seems not to have been suspected, for
Col. Babcock wrote that these birds
are very valuable in the public grounds
from the fact of them subsisting almost
exclusively upon the larvae of all kinds
of insects. and as they are not migra
tory, they live upon such larvae, and
thus prevent their maturity
1t seems to be properly vouched for
a fact that the first of these birds
that were liberated in New York in
1860 were imported not from England,
but from Germany. but because of the
economic value of these sparrows, their
amiabiIity among themselves and good
fellowship with other birds, there was
such strong demand for them to come
over and save the American republic
from insects that later they were I'M
ported from England, whittier at some
time more or less remote they had
been taken from Germany.
When the first sparrows were brought
to Washington they were regarded
with much interest and treated with
such solicitude that during the first
winter, and during several succeeding
winters, they were regularly fed in
Lafayette Square, Franklin Park and
the Capitol and Smithsonian grounds,
at the expense of the office of pubic
buildings and grounds.
The tastes and the habits of the spar
row have greatly changed since he