Sparrow - Kim Todd

Innocent. Invader. Lover. Thief. Sparrows are everywhere and wear
many guises. Able to live in the Arctic and the desert, from Beijing to
San
Francisco, the house sparrow is the most ubiquitous wild bird in
the world. They are the subject of elegies by Catullus and John Skelton
and listed as "pretty things" in Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book-but
they're also urban vermin with shocking manners that were so reviled
that Mao placed them on the list of Four Pests and ordered the Chinese
people to kill them on sight.

In Sparrow, award-winning science and natural history writer
Kim Todd explores the bird's complex history, biology, and literary
tradition. Todd describes the difference between Old World sparrows,
like the house sparrow, which can nest in a garage or in an airport, and
New World sparrows, which often stake their claim to remote islands or
meadows in the high Sierra. In addition, she looks at the
nineteenth-century Sparrow War in the United States-a battle over the
sparrow's introduction-which set the stage for decades of discussions of
invasive species. She examines the ways in which sparrows have taught
us about evolution and the shocking recent decline of house sparrows in
cities globally-this disappearance of a bird that seemed hardwired for
success remains an ornithological mystery.

With lush illustrations, ranging from early woodcuts and
illuminated manuscripts to contemporary wildlife photography, this is
the first book-length exploration of the natural and cultural history of
this beloved, reviled, and ubiquitous bird.