HOUSE-SPARROW 173 



deavours ; but how the female can, under the circum- 

 stances, manage to retain her eggs till the nest may be 

 ready to receive them is to me a mystery, unless she is 

 endowed with the faculty, generally ascribed to the 

 cuckoo, of bearing them about until a fit opportunity 

 offers for depositing them." — H. AV. Hadfield, April 14, 

 1857 {Zoologist, 1857, p. 5683). 



Curious Site for a Sparrow's Nest. — " A remarkable 

 case has just been noted. Professor Flower informs me 

 that during a recent visit to Woolwich Arsenal, his 

 attention was directed to a hen Sparrow sitting upon 

 her nest containing five eggs in one of the axle-tree 

 boxes of a 9-pounder bronze gun which is fired twice 

 daily, at 1 p.m. and at 9.30 p.m. One would have 

 supposed that at the first discharge of the gun the bird 

 would have deserted the nest for ever, and that the con- 

 sequent recoil and vibration would have disturbed the 

 eggs so materially as to render them unproductive. It 

 is satisfactory, however, to learn from Colonel Noble, 

 R.A., that on May 16 five young Sparrows were hatched, 

 and will probably be reared in due course." — J. E. 

 Harting {Zoologist, 1885, p. 233). 



Sparrow and the Crops. — " The House-Sparrow is a 

 curious fellow, full of originality, as bold a bird for his 

 size as is to be met with anywhere. His usual habitat 

 is, as his name implies, in the neighbourhood of houses, 

 chiefly towns or farms. In the towns there are always 

 scraps to be thrown away, in the country the farmyards 

 afford sustenance to the Sparrow ; often in the former 

 case, however, to the discomfiture of numerous half- 

 starved cats that abound in urban districts. It seems 

 odd, too, that although there are laws and what not for 

 the protection of most of our birds and beasts, yet very 



