HOUSE-SPARROW. 67 
to the crops—the seeds of the charlock and the dock and other noxious 
weeds; but as a set-off against this it devours an astonishing amount of 
grain. It feeds on larvee and perfect insects, but it also levies a con- 
siderable tithe from the fruit-trees. Kept in proper bounds, the Sparrow 
is undoubtedly a useful bird; but its increase is so rapid, its conditions of 
life so smooth, and its enemies so few, that, unless artificial means be 
taken to keep its numbers in check, it soon becomes a perfect pest. I 
have known farmers in the north of England cease from growing corn at 
all, or only in the smallest quantities, entirely owing to the inroads of the 
House-Sparrow ! and I have seen fields of corn so stripped by these 
destructive birds that the straw was the only recompense the poor farmer 
got for his outlay of time and seed. Of course this is only in the neigh- 
bourhood of large towns. It is not what the birds absolutely eat, although 
one Sparrow will take its own bulk of corn in a day, but it is what they 
waste in the process, by shaking it to the ground or breaking the straws. 
The Sparrow must be kept under; and this is the opinion of every farmer 
who has the ill luck to follow his plough near a town. ‘The bird 
has been introduced into the United States, and its increase there is so 
rapid that the day will come when our American cousins will repent of 
having introduced such a destructive souvenir of ‘home. After the 
young are reared the Sparrows unite into flocks and (that is to say the 
country-bred ones) retire to the fields, where they live chiefly upon grass- 
seeds until the corn is ripe. These flocks are often composed of many 
hundreds of birds; and a British farmer usually looks upon their visits 
to his fields with as much dismay as an Hastern farmer does upon a flock 
of locusts.” 
The House-Sparrow is not at all migratory in this country; but that it 
occasionally wanders from home is proved by the fact of its being taken on 
migration on Heligoland. The immense flocks of this species that frequent 
our fields in autumn would almost lead us to suppose that the number of 
Sparrows was increased by migrants from the continent; for the number 
of birds in the towns is not visibly decreased; but upon closer exami- 
uation it will probably be found that these hordes of Sparrows are mostly 
young birds. Although the Sparrow is avery hardy bird, it is undoubtedly 
a migrant in the coldest portion of itsrange. In the valley of the Petchora 
it did not appear to arrive until early in May. 
The House-Sparrow has the crown, nape, lower back, rump, and upper 
tail-coverts bluish grey; over the lores and the eye is a narrow white 
streak ; behind the eye and surrounding the ear-coverts and the sides of 
the neck is a broad chestnut band; the upper back is very dark brown, 
each feather edged with reddish brown; the wings and tail are brown, 
across the former is a broad white bar, caused by the lesser wing-coverts 
being broadly tipped with white; the lores, throat, and fore neck are 
F 
