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Problems with house sparrows (HOSP) on the bluebird trail (part 3)History of the House Sparrow(All material was originally posted on the mailing list Bluebird-L or Bluebird and reposted here with only slight modifications to make them more readable in an HTML format, for more information about Bluebird-L check out the following http://www.cit.cornell.edu/cit-pubs/email/using-lists/index.html. or for the mailing list Bluebird run by Dusty Bleher check out http://fsinc.com/wildbirds/Bluebird/List)If you are the author of a posting to one of the mailing lists and you would like to see a particular post (or posts) removed from these web pages please contact me at: bluebirdbox@cox.net and I will remove whatever material you like. If you have an opinion different than one posted hear you need not contact me as often I will have a different opinion also. My intent is to try and provide both sides to the issues confronting bluebirders and to do so in an impartial manner.In cases in which quoted material has been deleted to save space, it is indicated by an ellipsis (....) Also see other HOSP information under Active Control, Passive Control, Lime, Predator Identification, etc. In addition to the messages that have appeared on the Bluebird Mailing Lists on this topic I have the following on my web site:
From: "Gary Springer" <springer@alltel.net> New York Times, July 20, 1887 English Sparrows are being properly appreciated. Hundreds of them are now caught by enterprising people for sale to certain restaurants where reed birds are in demand. A German woman on Third Avenue has three traps set every day, and she catches probably seventy five a week. They are cooked and served to her boarders the same as reed birds and are declared quite as great a delicacy. This German woman bastes them, leaving the little wooden skewer in the bird when served. They are cooked with a bit of bacon. She tempts them with oats, and after the catch they are fed a while with boiled oaten meal. She sprinkles oaten meal in the back yard also, and thereby fattens the free birds. The females are the choice meat. The males can be told by the circle of white feathers at the neck. The females are as plain as Quakeresses. So soon as it becomes known that the Sparrow is a table bird their number will rapidly grow less. People don't like to experiment, but when it is discovered that the Sparrow has been declared good by those upon whom they have been tried, no boarding house meal will be deemed in good form unless a dish of fat Sparrows adorns it. Sparrow pie is a delicacy fit to set before a king. In Albany, N.Y., English Sparrows were regularly quoted in the market reports during the fall of 1887, bringing $1.00 per hundred, or 25 cents per dozen. The following extracts from the Albany Express show that the birds are appreciated there: Sparrows are still a feature of the market, and one Albany lad, Charles Lambert by name, shot one hundred and thirty-five of the little pests Saturday, out of a single flock of about five hundred, on the outskirts of the city. A well-known game and poultry dealer took in one thousand seven hundred of them last week and sold about all. Yesterday the same man disposed of two hundred. (November 7, 1887) The Albany youth are still waging war on the Sparrows, and they are all gradually being driven from the city. One game and poultry dealer in town has thus far bought and then sold to others about three thousand eight hundred of the little pests. They make excellent pot-pie and are regarded as excellent eating by those who have made the trial. The flavor is said to be somewhat like that of reed-birds and much superior to quail. (November 18, 1887) The above information was found in "Bulletin One" of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, 1889 Posted to Bluebird-L by
From: "Gary Springer" <springer@alltel.net> Forest and Stream, Vol XXV, No2, pp 24,25 August 6, 1885 The English Sparrow,-Verdict of the American Ornithologists" Union At the meeting of the Council of the American Ornithologists' Union, held in
Washington, April 21, 1885, the committee appointed in September, 1883, to
inquire into the question of the eligibility or ineligibility of the European
House Sparrow in America, rendered its final report, which was accepted and
adopted as the sense of the Union on the subject, and the committee was
discharged with the unanimous thanks of the Union. The report, which was
accompanied by a large quantity of valuable data, is here Mr. President and members of the Union: Your committee, appointed to inquire into the eligibility of the European House Sparrow(Passer domesticus) as a naturalized resident in this country, has the honor herewith to submit its report. After due consideration, your committee adopted the following form of circular letter, which was framed to elicit information from all quarters and from all interested persons: Snip............................. Returns to the first question give some data of interest in relation to the time of the Sparrow's first introduction into this country. The earliest date of importation known to us is 1858(Per the Dept of Agriculture Bulletin, this was an error. Two importations at least were known to have been made at Brooklyn, N.Y. before 1853)When Mr. Thomas A. Deblois liberated a few individuals at Portland, Me. These disappeared shortly afterward, and were not successfully replaced until 1875. In 1858 Sparrows were liberated at Peacedale, R, I., by Mr. Joseph Peace Hazard. They were first introduced into Central Park, New York City, according to Mr. Couklin, the superintendent of the menagerie, in the year 1864. In 1860 Mr. Eugene Shiefflin turned loose twelve birds in Madison Square, New York City. In 1868 the species was first introduced into Boston Common. In 1869 a number were given the liberty of the parks of Philadelphia. Somewhat later a successful attempt was made to establish a colony near Great Salt Lake, Utah, and about the same time the birds became resident at Indianapolis, Indiana.(In Indianapolis, only 20 years later, W.T. Hill trapped 40,000 of these birds in a single year) In a period of about ten years the Sparrows reached nearly all the large
towns and cities of New England and the Middle States and many of those of the
Western States without artificial assistance(The Dept of Agriculture also
disputes this matter. Public opinion was on the side of this bird and not only
were nest boxes erected by the thousands to help it and barrels of grain dumped
to feed it, but also, laws were enacted to protect it as well) It also made its
appearance in suburban tows and even country villages. Transcribed by, and notes in ( ) added by, Gary Springer
From: BBBMV@aol.com Dear Gary, Years ago I wrote an article for Sialia with a tongue in cheek prediction that if house sparrows could be served in exotic restaurants under some exotic sounding name maybe we could turn every barn yard and street corner into a profit center due to trapping sparrows for profit. Little did I know that it had already been done! I guess it is true that there is nothing new under the sun! I had also heard the same thing about pidgins in Louisville, Ky. It seemed a fancy French chef there noted all the fat grain fed pidgins around the city and asked various people to get him some. He served them under some fancy name on the menu and became the talk of the town even as the pidgins population decreased. In today's America I doubt if anyone would mess much with sparrows to make sparrow pot pie or anything, but wouldn't it be great if they did? Bill Davis
From: "Gary Springer" <springer@alltel.net> U.S. Department of Agriculture The English Sparrow was first brought to this country, so far as authentic information has reached the Department, in the fall of 1850, when the Hon. Nicolas Pike and other directors of the Brooklyn Institute imported eight pairs into Brooklyn, N.Y. As this first importation of Sparrows is of much interest, we give in full Mr. Pike's account of it and of the following importation a year or two later. He says: "It was not till 1850 that the first eight pairs were brought from England to the Brooklyn Institute, of which I was then a director. We built a large cage for them, and cared for them during the winter months. Early in the spring of 1851 they were liberated, but they did not thrive. "In 1852 a committee of members of the Institute was chosen for the re-introduction of these birds, of which I was chairman. "Over $200 was subscribed for expenses. I went to England in 1852, on my way to the counsul-generalship of Portugal. On my arrival in Liverpool I gave the order for a large lot of Sparrows and song birds to be purchased at once. They were shipped on board the steam-ship Europa, if I am not mistaken, in charge of an officer of the ship. Fifty Sparrows were let loose at the Narrows, according to instructions, and the rest on arrival were placed in the tower of Greenwood Cemetery chapel. They did not do well, so were removed to the house of Mr. John Hooper, one of the committee, who offered to take care of them during the winter. "In the spring of 1853 they were all let loose in the grounds of Greenwood Cemetery, and a man hired to watch them. They did well and multiplied, and I have original notes taken from time to time of their increase and colonization over our great country." Col. William Rhodes, of Quebec, Canada, states that in 1854 he introduced English Sparrows at Portland, Me. (Forest and Stream, Vol. VIII,p.165). Others were introduced there in 1858 by Mr. Thomas Amory Deblois, and about the same time Mr. Jos. Peace Hazard introduced them at Peace Dale, R.I. These last birds came from Liverpool, England, and some escaped in Boston where they were landed. Nothing seems to have been heard of the escaped birds, however, and ten years later they were first regularly introduced into Boston Common. In 1860, twelve birds were turned loose in Madison Square, New York City;in 1864, they were introduced to Central Park, and two years later two hundred were set free in Union Park, New York City. About the same time they were first fully established in the city of Quebec, Canada, although one or two apparently unsuccessful attempts had been made previously. In 1867 forty pairs were imported at New Haven, Conn, and the same year a colony was established at Galveston, Tex. In 1863 about twenty Sparrows were liberated on Boston Common, followed by more the next year, while at the same time twenty were released in Charlestown, Mass., only a mile or two away. This year(1869) witnessed the importation, in one lot, of a thousand Sparrows by the city government of Philadelphia; and this probably is the largest single importation of Sparrows ever made to this country. The same year twenty pairs were brought from Europe to Cleveland, Ohio, and sixty-six pairs from New York to Cincinnati, Ohio. Within the next two or three years they were introduced at San Francisco, Cal; in 1873 a colony was imported and liberated at Salt Lake City, Utah; and about two years later they were introduced at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and at various points in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In many of the cases thus far mentioned it is positively known that the sparrows were brought to this country from the Old World, and mainly, if not entirely, from Great Britain and Germany. But no sooner had they become fairly numerous at any of these points than people began to take them thence to other places, sometimes in large numbers, but more often only a few pairs at a time. In most cases these few birds were carefully watched, protected, and fed, and so multiplied rapidly, forming new colonies from which the birds spread steadily without assistance, and more rapidly by successive transportations by man. This important factor in the rapid increase and wide distribution of the Sparrow in America has been too generally ignored, and it is only within the past year that we have come to realize something of the magnitude of the "craze" which led so many people to foster and distribute this serious pest. None of our circulars relating to the Sparrow asked distinctly for information about its importation or introduction, but only for the date of its first appearance. In most cases, therefore, correspondents have simply given the information asked, and only an occasional observer has alluded to the manner of its coming. Yet from the occasional statements thus made, and from various reliable published records, we have been able to make a list of more than a hundred places in the United States and Canada to which Sparrows have been taken, either by direct importation from the Old World or by transportation from place to place after their arrival in America. From the casual manner in which these data have been obtained it may be considered certain that they represent but a very small fraction of the number of points at which the Sparrow has been introduced; but the early dates of many of the places, are very significant as affording a partial explanation for the unparalleled rapidity with which this bird has overspread the inhabited part of the continent. Transcribed by Gary Springer
From: "Gary Springer" <springer@alltel.net> An Act to provide for the payment of Bounties for the killing of English Sparrows. Section I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That every person, being an inhabitant of this State, shall be entitled to receive a bounty of ten cents per dozen for all sparrows, known as the English Sparrow, killed; to be allowed and paid in the manner hereinafter provided. Section II Every person applying for such bounty, shall take such sparrow or the head thereof in lots of not less than 25 to the clerk of the township, village or city, within which such sparrow shall have been killed, who shall thereupon decide upon such application, and if satisfied of the correctness of such claim, shall issue a certificate stating the amount of bounty such applicant is entitled [to], and deliver the same to such applicant, and shall destroy the heads of such sparrows. Section III Such certificate may be presented by the claimant or his agent, to the city treasurer, or the treasurer of the township in which such sparrows may have been killed, who shall pay the same out of the township fund of said township. Section IV This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Passed March 30, 1888 Transcribed by Gary Springer A similar law was enacted in Michigan in 1887 the bounty being one cent per English Sparrow. Last June I wrote that old time farmers in Georgia told me the populations of house sparrows plunged right along with the populations of bluebirds when they began dousing their fields, yards, homes and bodies with DDT After reading of the flocks of thousands of house sparrows that inhabited the United States in the late 1800's, less than 25 years after they were established here, and, considering they were such a problem that bounties were offered for their destruction, I am even more convinced this must be true. It certainly appears the population of house sparrows today is but a fraction of what it was in 1889. Do you think the populations of house sparrows in your area are high enough to enable you to trap 40,000 of these birds in a single year as W.T. Hill did in 1887? Have you ever seen a flock of a thousand house sparrows? The bluebird survived this early onslaught of house sparrows quite nicely because, then as now, the house sparrow didn't venture far from the dwellings and outbuildings of man. And, I'd love to know why that is. The most commonly given reasons are food and shelter. But, food and shelter are plentiful enough in the wilder areas to support other birds. What is the special need of the house sparrow that prevents it from spreading into areas far from our buildings? Gary Springer
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 21:41:17 -0700 I noticed you referred to the HOSP as a "few spotsies". When I was growing up in Evansville, Indiana back in the forties everyone called them spatsie or spatzi. I never remember anyone ever calling them a sparrow. I have assumed that it is the German word for sparrow since there were many first and second generation Germans in that area of southern Indiana. Or is it just a midwest word?? I have never heard anybody out here use that term for a sparrow. Tom Long "Dean Sheldon Jr." wrote: > We just completed the removal of about 100' of overgrown/unmanageable
From: "Bruce Burdett" <blueburd@srnet.com> To: anyone who's interested, There are two German words for "sparrow." One is "Spatz" and the other is "Sperling." Both are masculine (der). The plural of "Spatz" is probably "Spatze", or "Spatzi," or possibly even "Spatzli" in Austria and Switzerland. Thus Dean Sheldon's "spotsie" is not a very big linguistic jump. (I'd never heard it before.) I'd welcome authentic testimony from any Germans who remember it from the old country. The German for "Sparrowhawk," by the way, is "Sperber." So anyway, let's keep after those !@#$%! spotsies. Bruce Burdett, SW NH
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 20:25:34 -0400 At 08:57 AM 07/16/2002 -0400, Bruce Burdett wrote: [We grew up in an old German neighborhood in Sandusky, Ohio(on Lake Erie)
where many of the older residents still spoke German in the late 1930's and
40's. Our father was a doctor. In talking with his patients about Purple Martins
and the same difficulties which we have today with HOSP infestations, the
patients referred to the sparrows as Schpatzies...and so, from that, spoties
bacame an early part of our Coleman air rifle vocabulary. Thanks for bringing
that to my attention....I never, ever, thought a thing about it. As a matter of
fact, I believe that my dad referred to them as "those GD spotsies." Funny how
times don't seem to change that much. Dean Sheldon, Huron County, Ohio
From: "Bruce Burdett" <blueburd@srnet.com> To: Anyone who's interested, This is a Forward of a message from a friend of mine in Germany on the subject of the word "spotsie," which Dean Sheldon used and which I'd never heard of. This is the same guy who was in the same town in Luxembourg (Bigonville) that I was in on Dec. 25, 1944 during the 'Bulge.' We were - what shall I say? - on opposite sides. Horst's English is OK, but not perfect. ----- Original Message ----- ...
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 10:39:42 -0400
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