172 HOUSE-SPARROW. 



Malta we find only P. hispaniolcnsis, also with a chestnut head, but 

 much blacker on the throat and flanks. In Spain our bird keeps 

 to the towns, and does not seem to clash with P. Jiispaniolcnsis, 

 which there breeds in the woods, often occupying the foundations 

 of inhabited nests of large birds of prey. Westward, the House- 

 Sparrow occurs in ]Madeira, but apparently not in the other Atlantic 

 islands. In Africa it is found from Morocco in the north to the 

 Albert Nyanza near the Equator. Introduced, like the rabbit, 

 through officious ignorance, into Australia, New Zealand, and also 

 the United States, it has become such a curse that special legislation 

 is being loudly invoked for its destruction. 



The well-known nest, of straw, hay, dry grass and all sorts of odd 

 materials, thickly lined with feathers, is placed indifferently in trees, 

 among climbing plants, under the eaves of roofs, in the spouts of 

 water-pipes, in holes in walls, and those in banks originally excavated 

 by the Sand-Martin ; in fact almost everywhere. The eggs, 5-6, are 

 pale bluish-white, blotched, speckled or suffused with ash- and dusky- 

 brown : average measurements '9 by "6 in. Three broods are fre- 

 quently reared in the season. The young are fed upon caterpillars 

 and the larvae of various destructive insects, and in this respect the 

 Sparrow is beneficial to the farmer ; but the voluminous evidence 

 collected on the subject shows that during the greater part of the 

 year an enormous amount of grain &c-., is devoured, and the con- 

 sensus of opinion appears to be that, while extermination is not 

 advocated, the increase of this species must be checked. By defer- 

 ring the destruction of the insect-fed young until they are fledged, 

 the greatest amount of usefulness may be extracted from this bird, 

 which further causes incalculable harm by dislodging and driving 

 away the House-Martin and other purely insectivorous species. 



Adult male : lores black ; a narrow streak of white over each eye ; 

 crown, nape and lower back ash-grey ; region of the ear-coverts 

 chestnut ; back chestnut-brown streaked with black ; wings brown, 

 with a bar of white on the middle coverts ; tail dull brown ; throat 

 and breast black, sometimes suffused with bright chestnut ; cheeks 

 and sides of the neck white ; belly dull white ; bill bluish-black ; 

 legs pale brown. Length 6 in. ; wing 3 in. In winter the colours 

 are duller and the bill is yellowish-brown. In the female the upper 

 parts are striated dusky-brown ; there is no black on the throat or 

 grey on the pate, and the under parts are brownish-white. The young 

 bird is deeper brown both above and below; the middle wing-coverts 

 are tipped with buff; the bill is dull yellow. 



