The New Yorker, May 22, 1978 P. 40
PROFILE of the house sparrow which, probably occupies the most extensive range of any terrestrial wild bird in the world. Its scientific name is "Passer domesticus." Tells about its importation from England to the U.S. in 1850 by the Brooklyn Institute to control city insects. lt was also imported by bird-lovers. Tells about its tremendous fecundity and expansion all over the U.S. where, a generation after its arrival, it affected the environment and economy so adversely that the Department of Agriculture had an investigation made of the bird that came to be known as the Barrows report, named after its principal author, Walter B. Barrows. lt was submitted on Apr. 14, 1888. Rural inhabitants were concerned with the bird's effect on their crops, as it is a grain eater, and also with its effect on beneficial and harmful insects. City people were concerned with insects too but they were mainly concerned with damage to ornamental flora, soilage, noise. Cites the findings of the Barrows report at length on what the birds, eat, how the above complaints were justified, the sparrow's effect on native birds. The report recommended the birds be destroyed, discusses the difficulties of doing this. Tells about the dependence on the horse by the sparrow and how, with the automobile, the sparrow population went down to decent proportions. Tells about the sparrow's successful predation on the Japanese beetle. Tells about the nesting, mating, breeding, feeding, cleaning habits of the birds. Discusses how its intelligence and physical endurance account for its survival and expansion. Tells about the range the sparrow occupies today. Tells about the adaptation of the birds to captivity and its singing abilities.