BIRDS PERCHING BIRDS DIAGRAM 4. 77 



The Canary came originally from the Canary Islands ; but it is 

 bred in domesticity, and is one of the commonest cage birds in 

 Europe. It is reared for its beautiful yellow colour, and because 

 it readily learns to sing and whistle. 



The Sparrow is well known to everybody as a bold, thievish, 

 impudent bird, found both in town and country, and plundering 

 the barns whenever they can get into them. The nests of 

 sparrows are always sufficiently substantial structures, but badly 

 made. They are built on trees or in holes. The question as to 

 the destruction of birds chiefly concerns the sparrow, and it is 

 certain that at seed time and harvest, and also in winter when it 

 has the opportunity, the sparrow eats a great deal of corn. But 

 on the other hand, it rears a numerous family in its nest, and 

 meantime the parents do nothing but go in search of caterpillars 

 and insects to feed their voracious brood. To prove this, it is 

 enough to look at the ground under a sparrow's nest ; it is 

 frequently covered with the heads and wings of insects, which the 

 birds have rejected as too hard for them. In the case of the 

 sparrow, still more than in that of other birds, it ought to be asked 

 if the mischief which it does at some seasons is not really more 

 than compensated by the good done by it at a season of the year 

 when it spends the whole day in destroying the swarms of insects 

 which eat the germs of plants and the buds of fruit. 



Another familiar bird is the Robin Redbreast a bold and 

 quarrelsome bird, which frequents the neighbourhood of houses in 

 winter, in search of food, and is a great favourite with children. 



