HOUSE SPARROW. 349 



abroad before they are well able to provide by effective flight 

 for their security, and individuals are frequently accidentally 

 pushed from the nests, or lose their footing, when they fall 

 to the ground, to become the prey of cats and children. They 

 are fed for some time after coming abroad, by their parents, 

 who however soon leave them to shift for themselves, and 

 make preparations for rearing another brood. Several broods 

 are produced each season ; but whether the same pair continue 

 their attachment, or mate with other individuals, I am unable 

 to say. The nests are frequently destroyed by boys, in which 

 case the birds manifest much anxiety, and sometimes display 

 considerable courage. 



Progress toward Maturity. — At the first moult, which is 

 completed by the beginning of winter, the males assume the 

 colours of the adult birds, although it is not until the next 

 season that they are perfected. The females also acquire 

 deeper tints. In its second plumage the male is as follows. 

 The upper mandible is light grepsh-brown, the lower flesh- 

 coloured, with the tip brown ; the feet pale brown. The upper 

 part of the head is brownish- grey ; the preocular space blackish- 

 grey ; a line over the eye, extending down the neck, yellowish- 

 grey, mixed with chestnut brown ; some of the lateral feathers 

 of the neck with a little chestnut near the tip ; auricular coverts 

 greenish-grey. The fore part of the neck, the breast, and the 

 abdomen, light yellowish-grey, fading posteriorly into white ; 

 a broad band do^\^l the fore-neck, from the mandible, obscurely 

 black, that colour being concealed by the whitish tips of the 

 feathers. Anterior dorsal and scapular feathers light yellowish- 

 brown, their inner web brownish-black at the tip ; posterior 

 dorsal and upper tail-coverts light greenish-grey ; lower tail- 

 coverts light yellowish-grey. Tail wood-brown, margined with 

 grey. Smaller wing-coverts light brown, with a little chest- 

 nut near the tips ; quills dusky, externally margined with 

 yellowish-brown ; primary coverts the same ; secondary coverts 

 with a broader external margin of yellowish-brown ; the first 

 row of small coverts tipped with paler yellowish-brown. As 

 the bird becomes older its colours assume a richer tint, until 



