186 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
Hovss Sparrow, Passer domesticus. I now come 
to our familiar old friend the House Sparrow, 
common and impudent here as he is everywhere else, 
a sturdy beggar about our houses for crumbs or any- 
thing eatable in the winter, and partially retiring 
to the corn-fields in summer and later on to the corn- 
ricks to pick up a living by robbery: his food consists 
of almost anything he can get, and is so varied that 
although he is one of M. Prevost’s birds he does not 
attempt to give a list of the House Sparrow’s food, 
as he does that of other birds, but contents himself 
with the following notice:—‘It varies its food 
according to circumstances. In a wood, it lives on 
insects and seeds; in a village it eats seeds, grain, 
grubs of butterflies, &c.; in a city it lives on all 
kinds of débris ; but it prefers cockchaffers and some 
other insects to all other food.” This I know is 
contradicted by some writers, who affirm that it only 
eats insects when no other food is to be had. I have, 
however, myself constantly seen it eagerly devouring 
spiders, after which it may be seen pertinaciously 
peering into the corners of the windows, crevices in 
walls, and deep cuttings in ornamental work; in 
addition to this piece of out-door housemaid service 
the House Sparrow is of great use in the garden by 
the destruction, amongst other things, of caterpillars, 
of which the food of the young birds in a great 
measure consists. Amongst the various peccadilloes 
committed by this species may be enumerated, 
