476 



FRINGILLIDT. 



of apple or plum trees in a garden, sometimes in other trees, 

 but seldom choosing one that is far from a house ; and the 

 nest, when thus placed in a tree, is remarkable for its large 

 size, as compared to the bird ; it is formed with a dome, 

 and composed, as in other cases, of a mass of hay, lined 

 within with a profusion of feathers, to which access is gained 

 by a hole in the side. So great is the partiality of the 

 Sparrow for warmth, that abundance of feathers are used 

 even to line a hole on the inner side of the thick thatching 

 of a barn, and they have been seen collecting feathers in 

 winter, and carrying them away to the holes they inhabited. 

 Their young are fed for a time with soft fruits, young ve- 

 getables, and insects, particularly caterpillars, and so great 

 is the number of these that are consumed by the parent 

 birds, and their successive broods of young, that it is a ques- 

 tion whether the benefit thus performed is not a fair equi- 

 valent for the grain and seeds required at other seasons of the 

 year. 



The great attachment of the parent birds to their young- 

 has been frequently noticed. In a note at the foot of the 

 tenth page, vol. i. of the Zoological Journal, it is stated that 

 a few years since a pair of Sparrows, which had built in a 

 thatch roof of a house at Poole, were observed to continue 

 their regular visits to the nest long after the time Avhen the 

 young birds take flight. This unusual circumstance con- 

 tinued throughout the year ; and in the winter, a gentleman 

 who had all along observed them, determined on investigating 

 its cause. He therefore mounted a ladder, and found one 

 of the young ones detained a prisoner, by means of a piece of 

 string or worsted, which formed part of the nest, having be- 

 come accidentally twisted round its leg. Being thus inca- 

 pacitated for procuring its own sustenance, it had been fed by 

 the continued exertions of its parents. Similar instances are 

 recorded in other works on Natural History. 



