The Blackbird.} OF ORKNEY. 59 



but, like most of the smaller birds, they attain their true co- 

 lours at about a year old. 



GENUS JX— THE GROSBEAK. 



Gen. Char. — Bill strong, convex above and below, very thick at the base ; nos- 

 trils small and round ; tongue, as if cut off at the end. 



Species 1. — The Sparrow. 



m 



The House-Sparrow, Wil, Orn. 249. Rail Syn. Av. 86. Fringilla Domestica, 

 Lin. Sys. 323. Brit. Zool. 300. Brit. Zool. Illus. tab. 65. Jig. 1,2. 



Mr Pennant, in the British Zoology, has placed the spar- 

 row among the Grosbeaks, and made it and the greenfinch 

 connect these with the finches ; and, indeed, the strength and 

 largeness of the bill seems to favour the placing it there, 

 though Linnaeus has ranked it with the finch tribe. 



Sparrows are here in myriads; make a vast destruction 

 amongst early corns : I have seen a small field of early bar- 

 ley almost all picked by these little voracious wanderers. 



Build everywhere, in holes of walls, and wherever they can 

 get the least shelter ; often beat the stares from the holes left 

 in the walls for them, by our good-natured Stromnesians, and 

 possess them in spite of the tenant, and to the grief of the 

 owners, who are fond of the mimic-songster starehng, but 



