I bo HOUSE-SPARROW. 



side, reaches Innsbruck. In Sardinia, Sicily and Malta we find 

 only P. hispanioknsis, also widi a chestnut head, but much blacker 

 on the throat and flanks. In Spain our bird keeps to the towns, 

 and does not seem to clash with P. hispanioknsis, which there 

 breeds in the woods, often occupying the foundations of inhabited 

 nests of large birds of prey. ^Vestward, the House-Sparrow occurs 

 in Madeira, but apparently not in the other Atlantic islands. In 

 Africa it is found from Morocco to the Albert Nyanza ; while it 

 swarms in South Arabia and at Aden. Introduced, like the rabbit, 

 through officious ignorance, in Australia, New Zealand, and the 

 United States, it has become such a curse that special legislation has 

 been loudly invoked for its destruction. 



The well-known nest, of straw, hay, dry grass and all sorts of odd 

 materials, thickly lined with feathers, is placed indifferently in trees, 

 among climbing plants, under the eaves of roofs, in the spouts of 

 water-pipes, in holes in walls, and those in banks originally excavated 

 by the Sand-Martin ; in fact almost everywhere. The 5-6 eggs 

 are pale bluish-white, blotched, speckled or suffused with ash- and 

 dusky-brown and black : measurements "9 by "6 in. Three broods 

 are frequently reared in the season. The young are fed upon cater- 

 pillars and the larvae of various destructive insects, and in this 

 respect the Sparrow is beneficial ; but there is abundant evidence 

 that during the greater part of the year an enormous amount of 

 grain &c., is devoured, and the consensus of opinion appears to be 

 that, while extermination is not advocated (nor practicable), the 

 increase of this species should be checked. By deferring the 

 destruction of the insect-fed young until they are fledged, the greatest 

 amount of usefulness may be extracted from this bird, which causes 

 incalculable harm by dislodging the House-Martin and other insec- 

 tivorous species. 



Adult male : lores black ; a narrow streak of white over each eye \ 

 crown, nape and lower back ash-grey ; region of the ear-coverts 

 chestnut ; back chestnut-brown streaked with black ; wings brown, 

 with a bar of white on the middle coverts ; tail dull brown ; throat 

 and breast black, sometimes suffused with bright chestnut ; cheeks 

 and sides of the neck white ; belly dull white ; bill bluish-black ; 

 legs pale brown. Length 6 in. ; wing 3 in. In winter the colours 

 are duller and the bill is yellowish-brown. In the female the upper 

 parts are striated with dusky-brown ; there is no black on the throat 

 or grey on the crown, and the under parts are brownish-white. The 

 young bird is deeper brown both above and below ; the middle 

 wing-coverts are tipped with buff; the bill is dull yellow. 



