68 FRINGILLID^E. 



and lays five eggs, long, pointed, the entire surface thickly marked with 

 deep chocolate-brown. 



In rural districts this species is comparatively rare, not more than one 

 or two couples being seen about each habitation ; and I scarcely think 

 it would be too much to say that there are four or five thousand 

 Chingolos for every individual Yellow Sparrow. Yet it is a hardy little 

 bird, well able to hold its own, subsists on the same kind of food and 

 lays as many eggs as the Zonotrichia ; and it possesses, moreover, a 

 great advantage over the dominant species in placing its nest out of the 

 reach of the parasitical Molothrus,thQ destroyer of about fifty per cent, 

 of the Chingolo's eggs. I can only attribute the great disparity in the 

 numbers of the two species to the fact that the Yellow House-Sparrow 

 will breed only (out of towns) in nests not easily taken, and to the 

 stubborn pertinacity which leads it to waste the season in these vain 

 efforts, while the other species is rearing its brood. This is a blunder 

 of instinct comparable to that of the Minera (Geositta cunicularla) , 

 mentioned by Darwin in the ' Voyage of a Naturalist/ where the bird 

 made its hole in a mud wall a few inches wide, and on coming out on 

 the other side simply went back and made another hole, and then 

 another, unable to understand that the wall had not the requisite width. 



In such a case as the Yellow House-Sparrow presents, in which the 

 colour of the sexes differs, the female being without any of the brighter 

 hues found in the male, and which makes an elaborate nest and lays 

 deeply-coloured eggs, it is impossible not to believe that the bird 

 originally built in exposed situations, and subsequently perhaps in 

 very recent times acquired the habit of breeding in dark holes. The 

 frequent destruction of the exposed nest, and an abundance of vacant 

 domed nests, into which some individuals occasionally penetrated to 

 breed, would lead to the acquisition of such a nesting-habit; for the 

 birds inheriting it would have an advantage and be preserved, while 

 those persisting in the old habit of building exposed nests would perish. 

 Domed nests made by Dendrocolaptine birds are very abundant even 

 now, and it is probable that, before the country became settled by 

 Europeans, they were very much more numerous. Darwin, speaking 

 of the Oven-bird's habit of always placing its oven in the most con- 

 spicuous and (to man) accessible places, predicts, and truly I believe, 

 that this habit will eventually cause the extinction of the species ; for 

 when the country becomes more thickly settled, the bird-nesting boys 

 will destroy all the ovens. Probably when the Oven-birds were more 

 abundant the Sparrows could always find vacant ovens to breed in, 

 until a habit of breeding almost exclusively in these safe and convenient 

 bird-built houses was acquired; and the present seemingly stupid 



