I'm reading a fun book by a Colorado author right now that I thought I'd mention -
-- Pioneer Naturalists - The Discovery and Naming of North American Plants and Animals by Howard Ensign Evans of CSU - Fort Collins.
Here's an excerpt from today's reading:
Thomas Mayo Brewer and the Sparrow War
The Sparrow War of 1874-1878 never made it into history books, but it engendered a good deal of passion in ornithological circles. Elliott Coues was once again feuding, this time with Thomas Mayo Brewer (1814-1880), a Harvard-educated physician who preferred birds to doctoring. The house sparrow had been introduced from Europe in 1852 by persons who liked to be reminded of the Old Country and who thought the sparrows would clean up the cankerworms in city trees. But of course the sparrows are seed-eaters and scavengers and feed mainly on the ground. In Coues's words, they had soon "overrun the whole country, and provide a nuisance without redeeming quality." Brewer was a defender of the sparrow, and he had strong backing from the eloquent clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. For several years newspapers and scientific journals were filled with blasts and counterblasts. Brewer wrote in the Washington Gazette that Coues's statements regarding the sparrow were an example of " a lie well stuck to being as good as the truth." After Brewer's death, Coues wrote of Brewer's accomplishments but said that he had "made a fool of himself about the sparrow for years." The sparrow won the war; Coues's suggestions that the sparrows be controlled were never implemented to any degree....
I first encountered Ensign's writing in another great book I highly recommend, although I think it is out of print and a little pricier now - The Natural History of the Long Expedition in the Rocky Mountains.
https://smile.amazon.com/Natural-History-Expedition-Mountains-1819-1820/dp/0195111850/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=howard+ensign+long&qid=1600440534&sr=8-1
He also has a book about the natural history of the Cache La Poudre and several others including some specializing in entomology. Unfortunately, no more works are forthcoming as he passed away a little over a decade ago.
Diana Beatty
El Paso County
-- ******
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
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