8 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



Charles R. Stockard (1905) writes: "There was a church in Colum- 

 bus [Miss.] the walls of which were completely covered with ivy and 

 the ivy was almost as completely filled with sparrows' nests. Permis- 

 sion was obtained to raid this colony and in one day four hundred and 

 fifty-nine eggs were taken and about seven hundred young sparrows 

 were killed. * * * Several compound nests were found, one a large 

 ball of hay with three small openings each leading to a separate 

 feather-lined chamber containing a set of eggs." 



In the days when we had arc lights over the streets, sparrows built 

 their nests on the supports under the hoods, where they had shelter 

 and warmth at night. Occasionally I have seen sparrows occupying 

 one compartment in a large martin box while the purple martins lived 

 in the others. The bulky nests of large hawks often have sparrow 

 nests in their lower portions ; many times I have seen one in an osprey's 

 huge nest, and have even found one occupying a crevice in the nest of a 

 Swainson's hawk. The sparrows do not seem to bother the martins, 

 nor are they afraid of the large hawks. Sometimes sparrows drive 

 out cliff swallows and occupy their bottleneck nests; occasionally they 

 use deserted nests of cliff or even barn swallows. 



A. Dawes Du Bois tells me that he found "a great many English 

 sparrows" occupying the lower holes in a large colony of bank swallows. 

 He also saw one building a nest in a woodpecker's hole. 



Natural cavities in trees, especially apple trees, cavities such as are 

 used by starlings, bluebirds and tree swallows, offer convenient nesting 

 sites. When the sparrows were more abundant in our cities they 

 nested in large numbers, sometimes as many as half a dozen nests in 

 a tree, in the shade trees along the streets and in the parks; their large 

 nests were very conspicuous before the trees were in full leaf. Most 

 of these nests were in deciduous trees at heights ranging from 10 up 

 to 50 feet. Some nests were in spruces; and, in California, nests are 

 often seen in the tallest eucalyptus trees, and even palms. 



In or about buildings the sparrows will build their nests wherever 

 they can find lodgement for them, on a rafter or a brace, on the corbel 

 of a pillar, on a rain spout under the eaves, behind blinds or shutters, 

 or in the pocket of a drawn-up awning; in the last case, if the awning 

 is lowered, the nest is destroyed, but the sparrows will build there 

 again, if the awning remains drawn-up long enough. Hervey Brack- 

 bill has sent me the following description of an awning nest: "A nest 

 built in a deep fold of a drawn-up awning in Baltimore city was a 

 great mass of loosely-placed and loosely-woven material, in the middle 

 of which was a comparatively small and rather neat pocket for the 

 eggs. In its extreme dimensions, the whole unkempt thing was 20 

 inches tall and 12 by 5 inches in breadth. The actual nest pocket had 

 an extreme depth of 7 inches, but from the point where the walls 



