THE HOUSE-SPARROW. *s 



Persia and Central Asia, India and Ceylon ; westwards it is found in Madeira. In 

 Africa it occurs from Morocco to the Albert Nyanza. It has been introduced into 

 Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, where it has increased to such an 

 extent as to be an unbearable nuisance. (Vide Sharpe and Saunders). 



Throughout Great Britain and Ireland, wherever man has made his home, the 

 Sparrow has quickly followed his example, even isolated houses usually providing 

 a pretext for the presence of this bird, sometimes to the extent of scores of 

 individuals. 



The adult male Sparrow in breeding plumage has the crown, nape, and lower 

 back slate-grey, slightly washed with olivaceous, but the sides of the nape bright 

 chocolate- reddish in continuation of a broad streak from the ear-coverts ; upper 

 back blackish, each feather broadly bordered with dull chestnut ; lesser wing- coverts 

 bright chocolate-reddish ; median coverts black, broadly tipped with white so as to 

 form a prominent bar across the wing ; greater coverts blackish, broadly bordered 

 with dull chestnut; primaries blackish-grey, all excepting the first with pale 

 chestnut edging to the wider part of the outer web, but the inner primaries with 

 this edge continuous ; secondaries blackish, with chestnut borders, paler and greyer 

 on the inner webs ; tail blackish-brown, the feathers edged with whity-brown ; a 

 narrow white line over the eye ; lores black ; cheeks, and sides of neck white ; 

 throat and chest black, sometimes suffused with chocolate ; remainder of under 

 parts white, ashy at the sides, and brownish on the flanks ; beak leaden black ; 

 feet brown ; iris brown. After the autumn moult the male has whitish-ash fringes 

 to the feathers of the head and throat, which appear to be very delicate in texture, 

 and break away in the spring ; * the under parts are also more uniformly ashy, 

 the upper parts duller, the wing band yellowish, and the beak becomes yellowish- 

 brown. 



The female is duller and browner than the male ; the broad borders to the 

 feathers of the mantle and back being tawny rather than chestnut ; the superciliary 

 line and wing bar less pure and conspicuous ; the under parts browner, with no 

 black on throat and chest. Young birds chiefly differ from the female in their 

 paler colouring ; the beak is dull yellow. 



In towns the House-Sparrow is a useful bird, inasmuch as it feeds largely on 

 oats and other grain which it picks from horse-manure, -and which otherwise would 

 render the latter less suitable for garden purposes ; it also acts as a scavenger, 

 eating scraps of all kinds which have been thrown into the gutters, and which if 

 not removed in warm weather would soon become offensive. In very dry seasons, 



* This I do not give on the authority of previous writers, although they mention the fact, but on the 

 clear evidence of a good skin (in my possession) of a bird which died in the middle of its change of plumage. 



VOL. II. P 



