294 HOUSE SPARROW. 



blended together in a marked and beautiful assem- 

 blage. The Common Sparrow is so frequent every- 

 where, as scarcely to require any description of its 

 dress. Suffice therefore to say, that it is subject 

 to variation with white or cream colour either in 

 whole or in part ; while the vicinity of towns, (in 

 addition to the dirt or smoke which obscures 

 their plumage,) seems also to affect the natural 

 depth of the tints. The whole of our large cities 

 and towns abound with Sparrows ; and the exten- 

 sive squares and gardens, or the grass plot of a 

 few yards square, with some bush in the centre, 

 equally supply them with a substitute for the 

 country. Here they breed under the eaves of 

 houses, in waterspouts or any other hole, and in 

 the open squares, in the hollow trees or bushes ; 

 and here they also keep up their incessant chatter, 

 varied by the more mixed notes of a general 

 battle. Our rural villages and farm steadings 

 also are each supplied with their flock or 

 flocks of Sparrows, assembling in the adja- 

 cent hedges, or some favourite bush, and often, 

 when the grain or seeds of the gardens are 

 ripe, committing severe depredations, which 

 causes a price to be set on their head, and their 

 flocks to be easily thinned from the close manner 

 in which they congregate. In the country, their 

 breeding places are still more varied than in 

 towns, and amon'g the most favourite, where the 

 houses are covered with thatch or turf, is under 

 the eaves, often in long holes, to the end of 

 which the arm can scarcely reach, and where 



