🚀 go-pugleaf

I discovered the following in the November 1984 issue of AUDUBON, in 
an article entitled "Dick Pough: Conservation's Ultimate 
Entrepreneur", and describes the introduction of the house finch on 
the East Coast:


	One of Pough's later sallies came to a rather untidy 
	conclusion.  Moira spotted an ad annoucing that Macy's was 
	selling "California linnets" for eighty-nine cents apiece.  
	Dick visited the store and saw that the birds for sale were 
	house finches, a western American species protected by federal 
	law.  Pet stores all around town, in fact, were selling these 
	birds.  He alerted federal agents, who began to issue 
	summonses.  Apparently some of the dealers, in their haste to 
	rid themselves of contraband, turned the birds loose on Long 
	Island.

	In April 1941, birdwatchers at Jones Beach on Long Island 
	spotted a bird that looked at first like a purple finch but on 
	closer inspection turned out to be a house finch.  The 
	establishment of the species in the eastern United States had 
	begun.

Before you get the wrong idea about this guy, Dick Pough "wrote the 
Audubon bird guides" and founded the Nature Conservancy.

Dale Henrichs
tektronix!tekcae!daleh