PASSERES. ( 156 ) FRINGILLIDM. 



THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



COaOION SPARROW, SPROUG. 



Passer domesticus. 



From the summit of the leafless elm 

 Excessive chirpings pour ; fond parliament, 

 Where all are speakers, and none sits to hear. 

 The Sparrow-couple with i7idustrious bill 

 The scatter' d stratus collect, contriving snug, 

 Under the cottage-eave or low-roof d barn. 

 Their genial couch. 



HUKDIS. 



Although this familiar bird is numerous about all the farm- 

 steadings and villages in the county, it has, fortunately, 

 not yet multiplied to such an alarming extent with us, as 

 to render its depredations in the corn field, like those of the 

 wood pigeon in former years, a subject of discussion at 

 agricultural meetings. It has, however, of late years, in- 

 creased so much in various parts of England, and done so 

 much damage to the crops, that the farmers in various dis- 

 tricts there have formed special clubs for the destruction 

 of the Sparrow, and offered, in some instances, a reward of 

 sixpence for each dozen of heads produced.^ 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., Northrepps, Norwich, a well- 

 known ornithologist, has lately written an exhaustive 

 account of the House Sparrow, from a farmer's point of 

 view,^ in which he says that " No one can for a moment 



1 The House Sparrow, by J. H. Gurney, jun. ; W. Wesley and Son, London, 

 1885. - ibid. 



