160 FEINGILLIU^E. 



detestable — only there is a certain lucus a noa lucendo sarcasm in- 

 volved in the Linnean name that aggravates. 



If domesticity consists in sitting npon the punkah-ropes all day, 

 chit, chit, chit, chittering ceaselessly when a fellow wants to work, 

 banging down in angry conflict with another wretch on to the 

 table, upsetting the ink, and ])layiag old Harry with e\erytliing, 

 strewing one's drawing-room daily with straw, feathers, rags, and 

 every conceivable kind of rubbish in insane attempts to build a nest 

 where no nest can be — if I say these and fifty similar atrocities 

 constitute domesticity, heaven defend us from this greatly-lauded 

 virtue, and let us cease to preach to our sons the merits of domestic 

 wives ! Conceive a wife evincing similar tendencies ! AVhy, there 

 isn't a jury in the country who would not return a verdict of 

 " sarve her right," even if the unhapi)y husband should have wrung 

 her neck before the golden honeymoon had run out. 



Now, everybody does or ought to know all about the nidification 

 of Sparrows, and all I mean to say is that their nests are shapeless 

 bundles of straw, grass, rags, wool, or anything else they can lay 

 their bills or feet on, thickly lined with feathers, stuffed into any 

 holes or crevices about huts, houses, walls, old wells, &c. that they 

 can find, and even, though rarely, into the centre of some thick 

 bush. They lay five or six eggs, sometimes even more, and have 

 two or more broods during the year. 



As to season this varies somewhat, but from February to May 

 are mostly the months " when sparrows build." If you require 

 further particulars, " circumspice ! " My one regret has ever been 

 that the whole race had not before my time met, under Providence, 

 that appropriate doom so graphically depicted in Mr. Yarrell's 

 charming woodcut. 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes : — " I am sorry to read what you 

 have written about the Sparrow, for I like Passer domesticus, and 

 willingly overlook its disorderly habits in admiration of its intelli- 

 gence, courage, patience, and care for its young. As a pet, too, it 

 has no superior, and only one or two equals, among the feathered 

 tribes. The noise that you so much object to is not the poor 

 bird's fault. With such voice as be has does the cock Sparrow 

 devote many a weary hour to cheer his mate on her nest, exhibit- 

 ing a patience and devotion that is equalled only by the ' wakeful 

 Nightingale '; and if it be but ' tuneless melody ' he pours forth, it 

 sounds far sweeter, I have no doubt, to Mrs. Sparrow than all the 

 hurried snatches of song with which the Bulbul, Thrush, Black- 

 bird, Bobin, and Lark put off their uncomplaining mistresses. 



" With regard to the breeding-season of the Common Sparrow, 

 I have certaiidy found as many, perhaps more, nests in July and 

 December than ' from February to May.' I ha^■e records of their 

 nests in January, March, April, May, July, September, October, 

 and December. 



" However extraordinary the place pitched upon for a Sparrow's 

 nest may be, it is, one would say, invariably in a recess of some 

 kind ; but I have seen a large haudsouie nest betv^een a pair of 

 deer's horns fixed up on the wall of a fashionable drawing-room, 



