SPARROWS IN THE UNITED STATES.--EFFECT OF ACCLIMATION, ETC. The house sparrows were first brought to New York city in 1862. They might have been introduced in consideration of the scientific usefulness of the experiment; but the importation was made solely in view of the benefit to result from their immense consumption of larvae. I have long observed peculiarities in their acclimation which are hardly known at all, and which must have a scientific importance. The subject might also be worthy of general interest, so numerous and familiar have the sparrows become all over our country. Walking on Fifth avenue, or in the parks of the city, during the breeding season, one's attention is repeatedly attracted by the pitiful shrill call of a sparrow fallen on the pavement upon its first attempt at flight, or by the stronger note of a mother sparrow, sharply bewailing the fate of a little one, killed by the fall, or dispatched alive by the cat. Should we take and examine these little weaklings, we should find generally that they are at a period when they normally should have the strength for flight, and we should also find that they are almost always of a lightish tint, some with head white, others with streaks and spots of white on the tail or back, and occasionally one is found entirely white, with red eyes--a complete albino. It is an accepted fact that the city-sparrow is everywhere of a lighter color than that of the country. But here the greater lightness exists in so many cases, to such a degree, and particularly in female sparrows, that it should be discussed, at least in part, under the head of albinism. That so many which lack the muscular strength in their wings should be so generally affected with albinism, is a significant fact to those interested in this phenomenon. Many hold, with Darwin, that this extraordinary want of coloring matter, occasionally met with in all animals, is not to be regarded as an index denoting an unhealthful condition of the animal. That it is so often united in the young sparrow with physical inability, argues favorably for those who bold a different view. In my observations, what has struck me as a most curious fact, and what I have found to be generally ignored, is that this wide-spread albinism and general weakness of our acclimated house-sparrow are not found among its progenitors. Throughout several sojourns that I made in Europe. I searched for a token of the remarkable characteristics existing here, but I never succeeded in finding one in England, France, or in Germany, nor have I met an observer that has. This albinism and weakness, existing simultaneously to such an extent in our young house-sparrows, are evidently the result of their acclimation.