SPARROWS WOODCOCKS. 255 



Like all other birds, sparrows adapt themselves without 

 difficulty to whatever place they happen to live in. In towns 

 they make their nests in curious holes and corners under the 

 tiles and roofs of the houses, or about the projections and 

 carvings on churches and old buildings. In country villages 

 they delight in holes in thatched roofs or in corn stacks, 

 while in less populous localities they build almost wholly in 

 trees, and even in hedges not many feet from the ground, 

 keeping, however, a watchful and knowing eye to the security 

 of the place they fix upon for their loosely made and con- 

 spicuous nest. There seems to be one sine qud non in the 

 choice of their abode, and that is the vicinity of man. 

 Sparrows never wander very far from houses and towns ; in 

 fact this bird appears to be more at home on the roof of 

 a house in the midst of a populous city than in any other 

 situation. Basking in the sun on a lofty wall or house-top, 

 a flock of sparrows look down upon the crowded streets with 

 a pert, impudent air, chattering and chirping to each other 

 as if making their remarks on the busy throng below them, 

 and seem as perfectly at their ease in the midst of the noise, 

 bustle, and smoke as the impudent set of schoolboys who 

 look up at them with a longing eye. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



Instinct of Birds The Woodcock carrying her young Herons Water- 

 Ousel Xest of Golden-Eye Duck Habits of Birds Talons of Falcons 

 and Hawks Stuffed Birds Plumage, &c., of Owls The Osprey and 

 Sea Swallow Manner of Fishing Carrion-feeding Birds Manner of 

 finding their Food The Eagle Sense of Smell in Birds In Ducks and 

 Geese Power of communicating with each other Notes of alarm A few 

 words respecting destroying Hawks, &c. Colour of Birds adapted to 

 concealment Instinct of Birds finding Food Red Deer Tame Roe- 

 buck. 



MANY people doubt the fact of the woodcock carrying her 

 young, from the wood to the swamp, in her feet, and certainly 

 the claws of a woodcock appear to be little adapted to 

 grasping and carrying a heavy substance, yet such is most 

 undoubtedly the case. Regularly as the evening comes on, 

 many woodcocks carry their young ones down to the soft 

 feeding-grounds, and bring them back again to the shelter of 

 the woods before daylight, where they remain during the 

 whole day. I myself have never happened to see the 



