136 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



with slender bills, chiefly live upon insects ; 

 those with short strong bills, live mostly upon 

 fruits and grain. Among slender-billed birds 

 he enumerates the thrush, the blackbird, the 

 field-fare, the starling, the lark, the titmouse, 

 the water- wagtail, the nightingale, the red 

 start, the robin-redbreast, the beccafigo, the 

 stone-chatter, the whin-chat, the gold-finch, 

 the white-throat, the hedge-sparrow, the petti- 

 chaps, the golden-crowned wren, the wren, 

 the humming-bird, and several other small 

 birds of the sparrow-kind, unknown in this 

 part of the world. 



All these, as was said, live for the most part 

 upon insects ; and are consequently of parti- 

 cular benefit to man. By these are his 

 grounds cleared of the pernicious swarms of 

 vermin that devour the budding leaves and 

 flowers ; and that even attack the root itself, 

 before ever the vegetable can come to maturi- 

 ty. These seek for and destroy the eggs of 

 insects that would otherwise propagate in 

 numbers beyond the arts of man to extirpate ; 

 they know better than man where to seek for 

 them ; and thus at once satisfy their own ap- 

 petites, and render him the most essential 

 services. 1 



1 The Sparrow. We have no bird more generally 

 known, thought of, or mentioned with greater indiffer- 

 ence, perhaps contempt, than the common sparrow (frin- 



gilla domestica), " that sittetii alone on the house-top;" 

 yet it is an animal that Nature seems to have endowed 

 with peculiar characteristics, having ordained for it a 

 very marked provision, manifested in its increase and 

 maintenance, notwithstanding the hostile attacks to 

 which it is exposed. A dispensation that exists through- 

 out creation is brought more immediately to our notice 

 by the domestic habits of this bird. The natural ten- 

 dency that the sparrow has to increase, will often enable 

 one pair of birds to bring up fourteen or more young 

 ones in the season. They build in places of perfect 

 security from the plunder of larger birds and vermin. 

 Their art and ingenuity in commonly attaching their 

 nests beneath that of the rook, high in the elm, a bird 

 whose habits are perfectly dissimilar, and with which 

 they have no association whatever, making use of their 

 structure only for a defence to which no other bird re- 

 sorts, manifest their anxiety and contrivance for the 

 safety of their broods. With peculiar perseverance and 

 boldness, they forage and provide for themselves and 

 their offspring; will filch grain from the trough of the 

 pig, or contend for its food with the gigantic turkey; and, 

 if scared away, their fears are those of a moment, as 

 they quickly return to their plunder; and they roost pro- 

 tected from all the injuries of weather. These circum- 



But this is not the only merit of this tribe : 

 in it we have the sweetest songsters of the 

 grove ; their notes are softer, and their man- 

 ner more musically soothing, than those of 

 hard-billed birds. The foremost in musical 

 fame are the nightingale, the thrush, the 

 blackbird, the lark, the red-breast, the black- 

 cap, and the wren. 



Birds of the sparrow-kind, with thick and 

 short bills, are the gross-beak, the green- 

 finch, the bull-finch, the crossbill, the house- 

 sparrow, the chaffinch, the brambling, the 

 gold- finch, the linnet, the siskin, the bunting, 

 the yellow-hammer, the ortlan, the wheat ear, 

 and several other foreign birds, of which we 

 know rather the names than the history. 

 These chiefly feed upon fruits, grain, and 

 corn. They are often troublesome to man, as 



stances tend greatly to increase the race, and in some 

 seasons their numbers in our corn-fields towards autumn 

 are prodigious; and did not events counteract the in- 

 crease of this army of plunderers, the larger portion of our 

 bread-corn would be consumed by them. But their re- 

 duction is as rapidly accomplished as their increase, their 

 love of association bringing upon them a destruction which 

 a contrary habit would not tempt. They roost in troops in 

 our ricks, in the ivy on the wall, &c., and are captured by 

 the net : they cluster on the bush, or crowd on the chaff 

 by the bam door, and are shot by dozens at a time, or will 

 rush in numbers, one following another, into the trap. 

 These and various other engines of destruction so reduce 

 them in the winter season, that the swarms of autumn 

 gradually diminish, till their numbers in spring are in 

 no way remarkable. I have called them plunderers, and 

 they are so ; they are benefactors likewise, seeming to 

 be appointed by Nature as one of the agents for keeping 

 from undue increase another race of creatures, and by 

 their prolificacy they accomplish it. In spring and the 

 early part of the summer, before the corn becomes ripe, 

 they are insectivorous, and their constantly-increasing 

 families require an unceasing supply of food. We see 

 them every minute of the day in continual progress, fly- 

 ing from the nest for a supply, and returning on rapid 

 wing with a grub, a caterpillar, or some reptile j and 

 the numbers captured by them in the course of these 

 travels are incredibly numerous, keeping under the in- 

 crease of these races, and making ample restitution for 

 their plunderings and thefts. When the insect race be- 

 comes scarce, the com and seeds of various kinds are 

 ready ; their appetite changes, and they feed on these 

 with undiminished enjoyment. 



We have scarcely another bird, the appetite of which 

 is so accommodating in all respects as that of the house 

 sparrow. It is, I believe, the only bird that is a volun- 

 tary inhabitant with man lives in his society, and^is 

 his constant attendant, following him wherever he fix^es 

 his residence. It becomes immediately an inhabitant of 

 the new farm-house, in a lonely place or recent inclo- 

 sure, or even in an island ; will accompany him into the 

 crowded city, and build and feed there in content, un- 

 mindful of the noise, the smoke of the furnace, or the 

 steam-engine, where even the swallow and the martin, 

 that flock around him in the country, are scared by the 

 tumult, and leave him: but the sparrow, though be- 

 grimed with soot, does not forsake him; feeds on his 

 food, rice, potatoes, or almost any other extraneous sub- 

 stance he may find in the street ; looks to him for his 

 support, and is maintained almost entirely by the indus- 

 try and providence of man. It is not known in a soli- 

 tary and independent state. Journal of a Naturalist. 



