f such cars. The
sparrow visited these cars for the grain, and it must have been no
infrequent accident that a door should be shut upon a group of
sparrows, especially in inclement weather, when they were apt to be
huddled in a dark corner of the car. These prisoners would be carried
to the destination of the car and there liberated, thus producing a
new center of what we are now inclined to call infestation. By such
means the English sparrow has spread over much the larger portion of
the American continent. Few birds are bold enough to visit a railroad
car. Of the few who might be tempted, most are timid enough to fly on
the first approach of man. Hence they fail to gain this chance of
spreading. They must remain in the old crowded home. Meanwhile the
sparrow, thus transported, finds a new home with fewer or no sparrows.
The struggle is less keen. More of his kind can live. His boldness
has been here a fit quality and has helped him in the race.

Man is only slowly coming to be a city-dwelling animal. Although it is
a voluntary process with him, he still usually visits the country with
much enjoyment. He has not as yet learned to adapt himself thoroughly
to the city, for somehow city life kills him. Families that move into
the city gradually have a smaller number of children in each
generation until shortly the family is wiped out. The population of
the city must constantly be replenished from the country. But the
English sparrow is more adaptable than are the people. He has made
himself at home in the heart of the biggest city. The Wall Street
canyon is not deep enough, nor contracted enough, nor free enough of
food to blot out the life of the English sparrow. At the heart of the
deepest gully among the skyscrapers of our biggest cities we find this
little bird hopping between the horses' feet, darting out from under
the wheel of the push-cart, fluttering only a few yards to a place of
safety, to return at once to his scanty meal upon the pavement as soon
as opportunity offers. He is a typical city dweller and has learned to
thrive there. Again in this matter he has distanced other birds to
whom the city is more deadly than it is to people.

Another very important element in his fitness for the struggle of
life lies in the fact that he is unafraid of man. He is wary of man;
by which I mean he will quickly fly up from in front of man's feet. It
is exceedingly difficult to catch a sparrow in one's hand. It is far
easi