Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 285 



hour about their roosting-place before retiring for the night, 

 so in the morning do they make known their "whereabouts" 

 by the same means, some time before they show themselves 

 to the day: — I once noted on the 11th of June, and likewise 

 a few mornings previously, that on awakening at ten minutes 

 past three o'clock, a colony of these birds frequenting the 

 ivy which covered a town-house were heard loudly chatter- 

 ing, and that for half an hour afterwards none stirred out. 



Loud complaints have been reported to me from the pro- 

 prietor of the nearest fields of grain to Belfast on one side of 

 the town and a mile distant from it, which are attacked when 

 ripening by hosts of town sparrows that go there early in 

 the morning, and after satisfying their appetites at his ex- 

 pense, return and spend the day in town. In our own gar- 

 den, these birds were for a number of years very destructive 

 to growing peas, almost living upon and amongst them 

 (perching on the pea-rods), and with their strong bills break- 

 ing through the pods to get at the peas, which alone they 

 eat, and just when they were in perfection for the table. I 

 have several times seen sparrows in chase of the large white 

 garden-butterfly (Pontia brassier), whose caterpillars are so 

 destructive, and once remarked an individual fly against the 

 stem of a dandelion and weigh it to the ground that it might 

 feed upon the seeds. 



These birds sometimes prove very annoying, especially in 

 lofty houses, by choosing the spout for their nestling-place, 

 where the base of their domicile stops the course of the 

 rain. From a country-house whence their nests were always 

 torn for this reason, they resorted to the adjacent trees, to 

 erect there, their large and untidy, though domed nests, and 

 preferred for this purpose the branches of the Balm of Gilead 

 and Spruce Firs, which naturally offered a firmer and more 

 compact basement than those of the deciduous trees : when 

 the latter were resorted to, the Larch-Fir was generally 

 chosen. At this place they were much persecuted, and I 

 have more than once known nearly fifty to be killed at a 

 single shot. It need hardly be remarked, that they fre- 

 quently build in rookeries, as well as occupy the nest of 

 the house marten. This is generally noticed by authors as 

 a very dishonest proceeding ; and though it is not my de- 

 sire to be the apologist of any of the manifold errors of the 

 sparrow, still justice has not been done to the bird ; for the 

 " pendent bed " of the marten is generally tenantless when 

 taken possession of, and the sparrow may have no anticipa- 

 tion of the rightful owner coming across the seas to claim his 

 property. In like manner, the sparrow occasionally takes 



