106 



SNOWFLAKE— SNOW BUNTING-. 



Adult in winter. Upper parts rusty brown, darker on the centre of the crown; 

 back showing irregular streaks of Ijlack caused by the black bases of the feathers 

 showing through their rusty tips; wings white, the end half of the primaries and 

 inner secondaries black ; outer tail feathers white, inner ones black, all these more or 

 less edged with rusty ; under parts white, the breast and sides washed with rusty. 



Adult in summer. Whole head, neck, upper tail coverts and under parts white; 

 back, black; outer tail feathers white, inner ones black. 



L., 7.00; W., 4.00; T., 2.75. 



Nest, on the ground, in arctic regions. Eggs, four or five, white, scrawled and 

 dotted with brown and lilac. 



TEEE SPAEEOW. 



Top of head chestnut brown, in winter edged with ashy, a grayish line over eye 

 and a chestnut brown line behind it, back streaked with chestnut brown, black and 

 buff ; upper tail coverts pale grayish brown ; greater and middle wing coverts tipped 

 with white, forming whitish wing bars ; primaries and tail feathers dusky with pale 

 edges; below whitish tinged with ashy, an obscure dusky blotch on the middle of the 

 breast. 



L., 6.36; W., 3.00; T., 2.85. 



Nest, on or near the ground. Eggs, four or five, pale, greenish blue, speckled 

 with reddish brown. 



JUNCO. 



Adult male. Upper parts dark grayish slate color; below abruptly pure white 

 from the breast; two outer feathers of the tail and part of third white; bill, flesh 

 color. 



Adult female. Similar, but duller; upper parts browner. 

 L., 6.25; W., 3.00; T., 2.75. 



Nest, on the ground. Eggs, four or five, bluish white, speckled and blotched 

 with reddish brown. 



HOUSE SPAEEOW. 



A member of this family about which there has been much controversy is the 

 imported European House Sparrow. This bird was introduced into Ontario about 

 the year 1873 by some gentlemen who no doubt were under the impression that the 

 sparrows would devote themselves exclusively to killing and eating the caterpillars 

 that infest the shade trees in our towns. They either forgot or did not know that 

 the Sparrow belongs to a class of birds whose diet consists of vegetable su))stance 

 and insects in about equal proportion, and that the Sparrow having attached itself 

 to the haunts of man usually obtains its vegetable food from the plants and seeds 

 cultivated by men for their own use. I have read many reports of so-called observers, 

 who have stated that the House Sparrow never eats insects of any kind, that it drives 

 away our native birds, and that it is altogether an unmitigated nuisance. Sweeping 

 assertions of this kind are only conclusive evidence that the so-called observer cannot 

 observe. No one with ordinary perceptive faculties can walk through our public 

 parks, or along one of our streets where there are trees and grass in the summer time. 



