HOUSE-SPARROW. 55 



run together; at this season the nuptial fights also begin. 

 Though said to pair for life, every cock Sparrow within hearing 

 hurries to join in the noisy medley, chirping and pecking, which 

 immediately follows a difference of opinion between rivals. A 

 crowd of fighting birds will fall to the ground, but the trouble 

 ends quickly without bloodshed. Once two combatants fell 

 between the panes of an open window, and when I pulled them 

 out still continued the fight in my hand. 



The short and incessant chirp needs no description, and its 

 double note *' phillip," which originated the now obsolete popular 

 name of Phillip Sparrow, is as familiar. Whilst the young are 

 in their nests, the old birds utter a long parental " churr." The 

 combined voices at dusk in the winter roosts, which, even in 

 London and other cities, are in clumps of trees in parks and 

 gardens, in evergreens or ivy-covered walls, have a curious 

 effect ; each individual penetrating chirp seems distinct, and yet 

 the whole is a jumble of shi;ill notes. The young in autumn 

 form the bulk of the flocks so harmful to corn ; I have known a 

 field visited day after day until little was left but cracked or 

 broken straw. Early in August the morning twitter decreases 

 and is hardly noticeable when the young depart. The flight is 

 direct and bustling, but when long flights are undertaken is as 

 undulating as that of most finches ; on the ground the Sparrow 

 hops jauntily. 



At least three broods are reared in the season ; I have known 

 fresh eggs at Christmas, and young in my own house early in 

 February and late in August. The nesting site is varied — 

 under eaves, in holes in masonry or rocks, in ivy or creepers on 

 houses or banks, on the sea-cliffs, or in bushes in bays and 

 inlets. When built in holes or ivy the nest is an untidy litter of 

 straw and rubbish, abundantly filled with feathers, usually 

 looted from the nearest hen-run ; but large, well-constructed 

 domed nests are built in orchard and other trees, and in treeless 

 country in hedgerows or bushes. Before the rightful owners 



