Sparrow War !!

On April 17, 1867, doctor, naturalist, and “race scientist” Charles Pickering stood before a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History to decry the “great evil” portended by the recent introduction of the _________  elsewhere in the country, calling it the “acknowledged enemy of mankind for more than five thousand years.” He warned that these “impudent parasites” stole human food and that their supposed benefits for insect control were far outweighed by their pernicious grain thievery. He even cited English poetry as proof that the birds’ “destructive propensities” were well known in that country. 

There was a declared war – yes, can you imagine -  ‘Sparrow War’ !!  

பறவைகள்  அழகானவை.  சிறு வயதிலிருந்து நம் வீட்டினருகிலேயே பார்த்துப் பழக்கப்பட்டவை சிட்டுக்குருவிகள். அவை சிறகடித்துப் பறப்பதையும், தத்தித்தத்திச் செல்வதையும், கூடு கட்ட இடம் தேடுவதையும், தானியங்களைக் கொத்திக்கொத்திச் சாப்பிடுவதையும்,  படபடவெனச் சிறகடித்துக் சுற்றி சுற்றி பறப்பதையும் கண்டு ஆனந்தம் அடைந்து இருப்போம். 

விட்டு விடுதலையாகி நிற்பாய் இந்தச் சிட்டுக் குருவியினைப் போலே

எட்டுத் திசையும் பறந்து திரிகுவை; ஏறியக் காற்றில் விரைவோடு நீந்துவை  

 என்ற மஹாகவி பாரதியாரின் வரிகள் மிகவும் பிரபலம். பறவைகளின் சுதந்திரம் குறித்து பாரதியார் எழுதிய அந்த வரிகள் இன்றும்  காலம் கடந்து நிற்கிறது.  

 

The little  brown birds   found just about everywhere were seen in Boston too, perched outside apartment buildings, gleaning crumbs from café tables, and even fluttering and hopping around the courtyard at the BPL’s Central Library.   

The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of 16 cm (6.3 in) and a mass of 24–39.5 g.  Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.

The Sparrow war dates back to 1899, by which time the tide of public opinion had turned against the house sparrow, known at that time as the English sparrow. The Globe called the birds "notoriously unclean" and an "esthetic disgrace to Boston," decrying everything from the "unsightly heaps of refuse which the sparrows construct and use for nests" to their role as "mobber and robber of hosts of native song birds."  

500 eminent citizens of the city, "including a bishop," appealed to Mayor Quincy to take action against the birds, and on March 3rd the mayor gave orders to "begin the work of exterminating the English sparrow."  But eventually, the  extermination campaign was a failure, the stage was set for the sparrows to persist as they have to the present day. Yet, they remained a convenient subject of public discourse. A 1909 Globe discussion equated the house sparrows with unwanted human immigration, and in the nineteen-teens through nineteen-forties a house sparrow named 'Bully' played the villain in bedtime stories published in the Globe.  

Today, it seems, the public and authority are resigned to the house sparrows' presence. The birds are everywhere, and it is doubtful whether efforts to remove them would stand any chance of success.

 

குருவி இனமே அருகி விட்டது என சிலர் கூறினாலும், இன்னமும் பல கண்ணில் படுகின்றன. இதோ திருவல்லிக்கேணியில் நான் எடுத்த புகைப்படம் .. 

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
17.10.2023
The first  pic and some inputs taken from Boston Public library.