490 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
mandibles in some specimens meeting only at the base. The 
plumage is soft, blended, and glossy. 
The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus, Fig. 208) is among the 
most interesting of the Passerine. It abounds all over Europe, from 
its most southern regions up to extreme north. 
Every one is acquainted with this little bird—lively, pert, and 
Fig. 206 —Bullfinches. Fig. 207.—Siskin or Aberdevine 
cunning, the true gamin of the winged race. It lives in flocks in the 
neighbourhood of dwelling-houses, and even in the heart of large 
towns ; it 1s familiar, but its familiarity is circumspect and sly. It 
haunts our streets and public places, but is careful to keep at a 
respectful distance from men and boys. It has a notion that the 
friendship of the great is dangerous, and its prudence counsels it to 
avoid intimacies which might have troublesome consequences ; it is 
only after multitudinous proofs of good faith that the Sparrow will 
form an unreserved treaty of friendship with man. The sparrow 
