The English Sparrow (Passer Domesticus) in North America Especially in Its Relations to Agriculture (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The English Sparrow (Passer Domesticus) In North America: Especially in Its Relations to Agriculture
The English Sparrow question in North America has grown to be a serious problem in economic science, particularly so far as the agricultural interests of the country are concerned - and the term agriculture must be here understood in its broadest and most comprehensive sense as including the grain-growing industries, truck-gardening, fruit-growing, the cultivation of flowers and ornamental shrubs and vines, and even forestry. It was deemed proper, therefore, that this question should be made the subject of the first bulletin of the newly established Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy.
The information necessary to a complete understanding of the subject has been collected with great care; the evidence submitted has been honestly weighed, and the results impartially stated.
The labor of collecting and arranging for publication the matter contained in Part II, together with the authorship of most of Part I, has fallen upon my assistant, Ir. Walter B. Barrows.
Brief portions of Part I, including the tables relating to the increase and spread of the Sparrow, were prepared by myself and are here reproduced without quotation marks from my annual report for 1886. Section 2 of Part I, consisting of recommendations for legislation and recommendations to the people, has been written jointly by Mr. Barrows and myself.
Prof. C. V. Kiley, Entomologist of the Department, has kindly contributed a full and valuable report on the Insectivorous Habits of the English Sparrow, based chiefly on the examination of stomachs submitted to him by this Division.
Section 4, on the Destruction of Sparrows by Poisons, was prepared by Dr. A. K. Fisher, assistant ornithologist, by whom the experiments were conducted.
Section 5, on Trapping the Sparrow, was contributed by Mr. W. T. Hill, who makes a business of trapping Sparrows in Indianapolis, Ind, The cuts illustrating Mr. Hill's article, together with the description of the apparatus used, were taken from the American Field of January 14, 1888.
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