THE SPARROW IN EUROPE. 17 



these birds become gregarious, and move in varying 

 flocks to their feeding-grounds, at more than the usual 

 elevation. 



The song of this species is too monotonous and shrill 

 to afford gratification. Its position, as a member of the 

 great Oscine group of Aves, has doubtless been given, 

 not from any special development of musical ability, 

 but from the presence of a singing apparatus. According 

 to Macgillivray, its ordinary call is expressed by the 

 dissyllabic word phillip or yellop. 



Although its ordinary food consists of grain and 

 insects, which are mainly procurable in the open country, 

 yet it readily accommodates itself to a town life, and de- 

 rives a subsistence from the refuse that is thrown out of 

 houses. Its appetite is so accommodating that there is 

 hardly any article of human diet which this bird will 

 refuse. Fragments of potatoes, the refuse of a green- 

 grocer's shop, a dry crust of bread, and a discarded bone, 

 are equally attractive. a The market-places," according 

 to Rev. J. G. Wood, " especially in those where vegetables 

 are sold, as Covent Garden and Farringdon Market, the 

 sparrow appears in great force, and in no way daunted 

 by the multitudes of busy human beings that traverse 

 the locality, flutters about their very feet, and feeds 

 away without displaying the least alarm." 



"In the Zoological Gardens, and in all large avaries," 

 says the same distinguished writer, " the sparrow is 

 quite in its element, pushing its way through the meshes 

 of the wire roofs and fronts, pecking at the food supplied 

 to the birds within, and retreating through the wires if 



t o O 



attacked by the rightful owners of the plundered food. 

 Even the majestic eagle is not free from the depredations 

 of the sparrow, who hops through the bars of the cage 



