tu 



PA8SKKKI.I.A. 



PASSIFLOUA. 



tit 



of the Italians) U much more abundant at the present day in Italy, 

 JJBMS the Common Sparrow is comparatively scarce ; aud there arc 

 two other European species. 



It is found in Denmark, Norway, aud Sweden, in which Inst country 

 H is more numerous if poasible than with us, the whole of the HiitMi 

 Ulenda. Fraoee, Spain. Portugal. lUly (rare), LigurU, and Dalmatia, 

 fas email numbers, and a stranger, a* it were, in the midst of the 

 ameruua flock* of the Cisalpine Sparrow, according to Tamminck ; 

 North Africa; the Uvant, aooording to Mr. H. K Strickland; 

 Trebiiond ; the Nubian Mountains ; the Deocan, according to Colonel 

 Sikos, the Himalaya Mountains, and other part* of India. 



The bird is everywhere before our eye*, even in our most populous 

 eiUea, mod cannot need description ; but a London sparrow require* 

 to be well cleaned before the true colours of his plumage appear. If 

 one of these begrimed soot-collectors be placed near a bright trim 

 sparrow from a barn-door, it U difficult to conclude that the rustic 

 aud the citizen are bird* of the same featlnr. 



There an many accidental varieties pure white; yellowish-white, 

 with the colours hardly indicated; rusty yellow variegated with 

 white ; some part of the body white, ash-colour or block-brown more 

 or Us* deep. The Prinytlla Candida of Sparrmaun, Patter Jtarta of 

 Itrieson, and Black Sparrow of Latham, are founded on some of these 

 variegated individual*. 



The habit* of the Common Sparrow, its amazing fecundity, its 

 strong attachment to ita young, the truculent battle-royal in which 

 they will occasionally engage in troops, when excited upon some 

 difference of opinion arising out of questions of love or nest-property, 

 their familiarity, not to say impudence, and their voracity, ore familiar 

 to all ; but few pause to inquire what service the sparrows do for the 

 unlimited tolls they take. Mr. Knapp gives the following account of 

 this bird : 



" The natural tendency that the sparrow has to increase will often 

 enable one pair of birds to bring up fourteen or more young ones in 

 the season. They build in places of perfect security from the plunder 

 of larger birds and vermin. Their art and ingenuity in commonly 

 attarhing their nests beneath that of the rook, high in the elm, a bird 

 who** habit* are perfectly dissimilar, and with which they have no 

 association whatever, making use of their structure only for a defence, 

 to which no other bird resorts, manifest their anxiety and contrivance 

 for the safety of their broods. With peculiar perseverance and bold- 

 nee*, they forage and provide for themselves and their offspring ; will 

 filch grain from the trough of the pig, or contend for ita food with 

 the gigantic turkey ; and if tcared away, their fear* are those of a 

 moment, a* they quickly return to their plunder; and they roost 

 protected from all injuries of weather. These circumstance* tend 

 greatly to increase the race, and in some seasons their numbers in our 

 corn-field* towards autumn are prodigious; and did not event* 

 counteract the increase of this army of plunderers, the larger portion 

 of our bread-corn would be consumed by them ; but their reduction 

 is as rapidly accomplished as their increase, their love of association 

 bringing upon them a destruction which a contrary habit would not 

 tempt. They roost in troop* in our ricks, in the ivy on the wall, Ac., 

 and are captured by the net : they cluster on the bush, or crowd on 

 the chaff by the barn-door, and are shot by dozens at a time, or will 

 rush in number*, one following another, into the trap. These and 

 various other engine* of destruction so reduce them in tho winter 

 MOO, that the swarm* of autumn gradually diminish, till their 

 numbers in spring are in no way remarkable. I have called them 

 plunderers, and they an so ; they an benefactors likewise, seeming 

 to be appointed by nature a* one of the agent* for keeping from undue 

 tnuesM* atKHhtr race of creature*, and by their prolificacy they 

 accomplish it. In spring and the early port of tho summer, before 

 the corn become* ripe, they are insectivorous, and their constantly 

 increasing familie* require an increasing supply of food. We see them 

 very minute of the day in continual progreM, flying from tho nest 

 for a supply, and returning, on rapid wing, with a grub, a caterpillar, 

 or some reptile; and the number* captured by them in tho counto of 

 the** travels are incredibly numerous, keeping under tho increase of 

 the**) raeee, and making ample restitution for their plundering* and 

 thefts. When the insect race become* scarce, the com and seed* of 

 various kinds are ready; their appetite changes, and they feed on 

 theo* with nodimini*b*d enjoyment" 



F. BMStfeMM (Frimgill* mtmlana ; Pyryita Montana), the Tree- 

 Sparrow, or the Mountain-Sparrow ; the Bee-Fin Kriquet of the 

 Krench. This bird i* very like the hut, but not so numerous. It is 



mailer than the Common Sparrow, and is found frequenting trees 

 from hoosre, and building in the holes of decayed pothmls. 

 It is much Bore local in Kng land than the hut, and i< found mostly 



la Surrey, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Uuthuvl, Lincolnshire, 

 Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland. 



( V anvil. Hnlitk Bird*.) 



rAS.SKUKI.LA (Swainaon), a sub-genus of FringUla. Ex. /'. /liaca. 

 <W, 4.) 



PAHSKIM TA (Uray), a genus of Serpent*. 



a genin of Twining Plants, the species of which 

 an called Pawon Flowers. This name is derived from a fancied 

 resemblance between the parU of their flower and the emblems of 

 Our Saviour's crudfixi<ro. In the five anthers the Spanish monks 



saw his wounds, in tho triple style the three nails by which he was 

 fixed to the craw, and in the column on which the ovary U elevated 

 the pillar to which he was bound ; a number of fl<-hy threads whi.-h 

 spread from a cup within the flower were finally likened to the 

 crown of thorns. " There are cut*," says Sir James Smith, " to be 

 found in some old books, apparently drawn from description, like the 

 bog in armour upon our signs to represent the rhinoceros, in which 

 the flower is made up of the very things themselves." In reality the 

 flower of J'aui.ilora consists of a calyx and corolla, each of five divi- 

 sions, consolidated into a cup, from within the rim of which spread 

 several rows of filamentous processes, by some regarded as barren 

 stamen* ; within these, from the side* of the cup, there proceed one 

 or more elevated rings, notched or undivided, aud in various degree* 

 of development in different species, and evidently of the same nature 

 as the filamentous processes themselves. In the centre of the flower 

 stands a column, or gynophore, with the sides of which five stamen* 

 are united, but spread freely from it beyond its apex, and bear five 

 oblong horizontal anthers. At the apex of the column is the ovary, a 

 1 -celled case, with three parietal polyspermouj placenta), and bearing 

 three club-shaped style* at its vertex. Eventually a gourd-like fruit 

 is produced containing many seeds, each having its own fleshy aril, 

 and usually enveloped in a suhocid niuciligi-. 



Passion Flower (I'auiflora Uoriflcldit}. 



1, a Dover cut open vertically, o u to show the calrx, corolla, filamentous 

 crown, Interior rings, central gynophorc, stamens, and ovary. 



Tho genus comprehends a large number of species, chiefly found iu 

 a wild state in America, and within or near the tropical parts of that 

 continent. They are all twining plants, often scrambling over tree* to 

 a considerable length, and in many canes ore most beautiful objects 

 on account of their large gaily- or richly-coloured flowers. This maken 

 them favourites in gardens, where many are cultivated, particularly 

 the P. alata, P. /nailran;iularii, P. ednlit, P. carvlea, P. raccmoia, 

 P. Loudoni, P. onycliina, P. palmata, and P.jilamcntota, ajl of which 

 arc strikingly handsome. It is however chiefly for their fruit that 

 they are valued in the countries where they grow wild, in consequence 

 of the pulp which envelopes tho needs being cool and refreshing, with 

 something of a fragrant bouquet. Under the name of Uranodilla the 

 /'. quadranyulnrit is well known in Iira7.il, where its fruit is on large 

 as a child's head ; the Water-Lemon of tho West Indies is the produce 

 of /'. laurifolia 1 P. mali/ormit bears what is called the Sweet 

 Calabash ; and the pleasant pulp of /'. eilu.lia furnishes the confec- 

 tioner with the most delicate material for the flavouring of icon. Many 

 however ore of no value for their fruit, and some are actually foetid. 





