HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



217' 



A NEW HISTORY OF THE SPARROW. 



By GEORGE ROBERTS. 



[Continued from page 204.] 



CHANGE OF TASTE. 



F we turn to the 

 feeding habits of 

 the sparrow we 

 shall see here again 

 how happily he 

 has fitted himself 

 into circum- 

 stances. When 

 hawks and other 

 natural enemies 

 were numerous, 

 and when the face 

 of the country con- 

 sisted of woody, 

 heathery, and 

 grassy wastes, the 

 sparrow, as a 

 species, would be 

 thinly distributed, 

 and would feed for 

 the most part on 

 the seeds of grasses. Just before harvest he reverts for 

 a short time to his ancient food, and when the ripe 

 grass is being mown, flocks may be seen in company 

 with whinchats and starlings feeding on the seeds. I 

 have also found seeds of grasses at this time of the 

 year in their stomachs. When oats and wheat and 

 barley, all of which are improved and enlarged 

 grasses, came into cultivation, the sparrow began to 

 turn from his normal food to the seeds of cultivated 

 grasses. No other bird did that in the same degree. 

 No other bird seems to have had the same adaptability. 

 The chaffinch, the bullfinch, and the goldfinch, all 

 birds with strong bills, adhered as near as they could 

 to their normal food, and the two last-mentioned, 

 being less able to adapt themselves to changes, are 

 now dwindling species. Now, this readiness to 

 conform to a change of food placed this sparrow a 

 step above other small birds : it induced a parasitic 

 No. 226. — October 1883. 



attachment to man, and it opened up a new source of 

 subsistence. Gradually as the cultivation of cereals 

 extended the sparrow would prosper and multiply, 

 till now it has acquired an appetite for cultivated 

 produce that is omnivorous. Other birds having less 

 adaptability remained at a comparative standstill. 

 When rice was introduced into America a bird called 

 the cow-bunting turned from its natural food to rice, 

 and now that bird is as much a pest in the ricefields 

 in America as the sparrow is in the cornfields of 

 Britain. 



It is not necessary to go into a detailed account of 

 the present habits of the sparrow, for it has been 

 pointed out on previous occasions in the " Rural 

 Notes " that it spends its time from January to 

 January, with very slight exceptions, in one continual 

 round of plunder and destruction. I must, however, 

 take the opportunity to mention that I received from 

 my friend Mr. A. Willis, of Sandal, an account of a 

 series of examinations of the stomachs of sparrows, 

 carried on in the summer of 1S82, with a view to 

 ascertain the nature of their food. He states that 

 out of 87 careful examinations he found insects in 

 eight cases ; in 68 he found vegetable food ; the 

 stomachs of the others contained sand only, or were 

 empty. In several instances he found in the gizzard' 

 sharp bits of glass, bits of iron, coal, cinder, and 

 wood. 



The manifold advantages which an omnivorous 

 taste confers on the species, being apparent, need' 

 not to be referred to further than to note that its 

 adaptive nature is thereby immensely widened. 



COLOUR. 



The dull plumage is another advantage that the 

 sparrow possesses. The colour assimilates with the 

 soil and with the bark of trees, thus it is more likely 

 to elude observation. If half-a-dozen sparrows and 

 half-a-dozen yellow or pied wag-tails were feeding irv 

 a fallow field and a hawk happened to be passing over. 



