A CHANGE OF DIET 



One of the most novel of local migrations among birds is the 

 evacuation of the towns by sparrows just about the same 

 date that society likes to leave. Our towns are a protection, 

 organised on a vast scale, for certain species of birds. The 

 suburbs encourage starlings and carrion crows, among others, 

 but both town and suburb breed sparrows in almost appalling 

 quantity. The seven million of inhabitants in greater 

 London are a handful to the sparrows of greater London ; 

 and the comparative number of sparrows is even greater in the 

 Midland towns. But the town birds are not quite faithful to 

 the towns. They have learnt to nest in the towns in any 

 sort of site. They have even taken to living at this season in 

 fiats, like 'intensive chickens.' More than once one of those 

 lumps of untidy hay and straw and string and feathers in 

 which the sparrows' eggs are laid has been found to contain 

 two or more nests. Sometimes these strange erections have 

 fallen by their over-weight of untidiness added to the natural 

 burden. Occasionally mere vexation at the spectacle of the 

 bad art will cause such a nest to be overthrown. The cock 

 sparrow is either more irritable or more tidy than the hen. 

 On one occasion he showed such irritation at the protuber- 

 ance of a long straw from his nest, built on the side of a 



