Eugene P
BICKNELL.
Passer domesticus (Linn.). HOUSE SPARROW; ENGLISH SPARROW. Ad. 8.-Crown gray, bordered from the eye backward and on the nape by chestnut; lesser wing-coverts chestnut, middle coverts tipped with white; back streaked with black and chestnut; rump ashy; middle of the throat and breast black; sides of the throat white; belly whitish. Ad. q.-Head and rump grayish brown; back streaked with black and deep ochraceous-buff; under parts dirty whitish, the breast and sides washed with pale grayish brown. L., 6.33; W., 3.01; T., 2·30; B., 48.
Range.-" Nearly the whole of Europe, but replaced in Italy by P. italiæ, extending eastward to Persia and Central Asia, India, and Ceylon" (Sharpe). Introduced and naturalized in America, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Nest, of any available material in any available place. Eggs, varying from plain white to almost uniform olive-brown, generally white, finely and evenly marked with olive, 1.86 × 62.
We learn from Bulletin No. 1 of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture * that this pest was first introduced into the United States at Brooklyn, New York, in 1851 and 1852. As late as 1870 it was largely confined to the cities of the Atlantic States, but since that date, partly through man's agency and partly through the bird's rapid increase in numbers and adaptability, it has spread over most of the United States and Canada east of the great plains, and isolated colonies are established throughout the west. * The English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in North America, especially in its Relations to Agriculture. Prepared under the Direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Ornithologist, by Walter B. Barrows, Assistant Ornithologist, Washington, FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.
This report shows that in ten years the progeny of a single pair of Sparrows might amount to 275,716,983,698! It also states that during the year 1886 the Sparrow added approximately 516,500 square miles to the territory occupied by it. The day is evidently near at hand, therefore, when the English Sparrow will be in complete possession of the country.
The EUROPEAN TREE SPARROW (Passer montanus) has become naturalized in and about St. Louis, Missouri. 521. Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm). AMERICAN CROSSBILL;