4 6 



THE HOUSE-SPARROW 



is placed in trees and shrubs, in holes in hayricks, thatch, walls and 

 trees, in rainwater pipes, under the eaves of houses, in ivy-clad 

 walls and trees, and, according to some observers, in the nests of 

 the house marten and swallow. The nest is usually made of straw, 

 hay or dried grasses, more or less in the form of an oval ball with 

 an opening into it at the side, and is rarely found more than a 

 mile from human dwellings. Five or six eggs are laid, of a bluish- 

 white ground colour, variously blotched or speckled with brownish 

 or blackish markings. Each pair of birds may rear two or three 

 broods during the summer. 



FIG. 35. THE COMMON OR HOUSE-SPARROW AND YOUNG. 



In habits no birds are more active or fearless than the common 

 sparrows. They mingle freely with man, and frequent the busiest 

 haunts of trade for the purpose of picking up food. The denizens 

 of towns are generally of a dingier hue than those of the country. 

 The food consists of grain, seeds, and general waste of food-stuffs 

 in town and country, being in this respect a general scavenger, 

 acting usefully by consuming weed-seeds in farmyards and else- 

 where. House-sparrows also feed upon aphides, certain caterpillars, 

 and other insects, fully 50 per cent, of the food on which the young 

 are reared consisting of insect larvae. In the garden sparrows eat 

 the tops of pea-plants, winter spinach, and lettuce, pluck up " spring- 

 ing " onion, radish, turnip, beet (eating the leaves), and all the Bras- 

 sica tribe seeds; destroy the blooms of crocus, primrose, 

 polyanthus, and carnation (eating the tender " grass "), and de- 

 molish the buds of currant and gooseberry bushes, plum trees, 

 and, some say, pear and apple trees. In allotments and fields the 



