92 THE HOUSE SPARROW 



THE HOUSE SPARROW 



PASSER DOMESTICUS 



Crown and back of the head dark bluish ash ; lore, throat and front of the 

 neck black ; above the eyes a band of uniform reddish brown, inter- 

 mixed with a few small white feathers ; upper feathers dark brown, 

 edged with reddish brown ; a single transverse white bar on the wing ; 

 cheeks, sides of the neck, and under parts greyish white. Female — 

 head, nape, neck, and breast ash-brown ; above the eye a light yellowish 

 brown streak ; rest of the plumage less bright. Length five inches and 

 three-quarters. Eggs white, spotted and speckled with dark grey and 

 brown. 



What were the haunts of the Sparrow at the period when men 

 dwelt in tents, and there were neither farmhouses nor villages, much 

 less towns and cities, it were hard to say. Certain it is now that 

 thoroughly wild Sparrows are not to be met with in districts remote 

 from human dwellings and cultivation ; they have left the hill- 

 side and forest as if by common consent, and have pitched their 

 tents where man builds, or ploughs, or digs, and nowhere else. In 

 the city, the seaport town, the fishing village, the hamlet, the farm- 

 house, nay, near the cot on the lone waste and by the roadside 

 smithy, they are always present, varying in the amount of con- 

 fidence they place in their patrons, but all depending on man to 

 a certain extent. And not only do they court his society, but 

 they have adopted his diet. Whatever is the staple food of a 

 household, the Sparrows that nestle around will be right pleased to 

 share it ; bread, meat, potatoes, rice, pastry, raisins, nuts, if they 

 could have these for the asking, they would not trouble themselves 

 to search farther ; but obliged, as they are, to provide for them- 

 selves, they must be content with humble fare ; and so skilful are 

 they as caterers, that whatever other birds may chance to die of 

 starvation, a Sparrow is always round and plump, while not a few 

 have paid for their voracity by their lives. Much difference of 

 opinion exists as to whether Sparrows should be courted by man 

 as allies, or exterminated as enemies. The best authorities on 

 this point have come to the conclusion that their numbers must 

 be lessened, and that the most humane way to do this is to tear down 

 nests before the young are hatched out. The fact that great 

 efforts are at the present time being made to introduce them into 

 New Zealand, where the corn crops suffer great injury from the 

 attacks of insects, which the presence of Sparrows would, it is 

 believed, materially check, leads to the conclusion that their mission 

 is one of utility. That Sparrows consume a very large quantity 

 of corn in summer there can be no doubt ; as soon as the grain has 

 attained its full size, and long before it is ripe, they make descents 

 on the standing corn, and if undisturbed will clear so effectually 

 of their contents the ears nearest to the hedges, that this portion 

 of the crop is sometimes scarcely worth the threshing. During 



