look favourably upon the presence of the sparrow in America; but such may be assured that it is no more than the exigencies of the case demand. Unless the sparrows can be made to devour grasshoppers there is absolutely no occasion for their naturalization in the West, not even the flimsy excuse for them that we sometimes hear made in the East. That they will not subsist upon grasshoppers to any extent, or upon potato-beetles, may be regarded as a foregone conclusion; and in the absence of other sources of food-supply, they will infallibly fall upon the crops.
Though it must appear to all well-informed persons a work of supererogation to point out what mischief the sparrows have done, what worse evils are in prospect, and what thoroughly undesirable birds these are from every standpoint, yet the people of the West may not be fully apprised as yet of the actual state of the case. Their attention is therefore called to the present status of the sparrow in America, as fully exhibited in the following review of the situation.
For it occurs to me that the facts in the case can in no way be more forcibly presented or more clearly illustrated than by the simple and lucid method of setting forth, in sufficient detail, the controversy which the introduction of the sparrow into America has occasioned, and analyzing the mass of evidence we have accumulated. To such a record, moreover, attaches a degree of historical interest. Instead of expressing my own views, or of preparing statements which might be open even to an unfounded charge of prejudice, I have therefore thrown what I have to say into the form of a commentary on the record itself, leaving each one to form his own opinion on the subject.
