HOUSE-SPARROW 169 



Food of the Hawfinch. — " As regards Hawfinches feeding 

 on the kernels of cherry and pkun stones (referred to on 

 p. 117), I may note that some years ago I had a pair of 

 Hawfinches sent up from Norwich in the flesh. Upon 

 skinning them the odour of prussic acid was very marked, 

 and they were found to be crammed with the undigested 

 kernels of plum and damson stones. This was late in 

 autumn, and it should be borne in mind that the stones 

 had doubtless been exposed for weeks to the action of 

 the weather, and were, in consequence, more readily 

 opened than they would have been when fresh from the 

 fruit."— A. B. Farn {Zoologist, 1888, p. 187). 



A great many of the specimens above noted from 

 Boughton and procured during the winter were found 

 to have the base of the mandibles coated with mud, 

 caused by their habit of digging out the damson stones 

 from the erround beneath the trees. 



Genus PASSER, Brisson. 



HOUSB-SPAEKOW. 



Passer domestlcus (Linnasus). >S'.iV., i., p. 323 

 (1766). 



Sparrow, Boys, 1792. 



The Sparrow is the most familiar and home-loving 

 bird found in Kent. There is not a house, cottage, shed, 

 or haystack which is not made use of in one way or 

 another by the Sparrow. The mischief they do, and the 

 food they eat, are well known to all farmers, at the same 

 iime, during the breeding season, they consume a vast 



