HOUSE SPARROW 215 



boring streets to bathe at the edge of the 

 pond or the fountains and sun themselves 

 on the grass-plots. It has proved after some 

 experience that they afford little embar- 

 rassment to the observer, since a power to 

 overlook them and eliminate their voices 

 from the notes of the visitant birds can be 

 readily acquired. 



White- throated, white-crowned, and fox 

 sparrows treat the House Sparrows as in- 

 feriors and drive them at will, for they are 

 at once recognized by them as masterful 

 and superior. 



A House Sparrow of albino type has 

 sometimes been seen. One such of almost 

 complete whiteness of plumage used to 

 be seen within the Garden near the head of 

 Newbury Street. And others in less degrees 

 of albinism have been seen from time to 

 time and have also been observed upon the 

 Common. Such plumages are generally 

 regarded as the result of degeneracy. 



