THE SPARROW. 



401 



a nest not three feet from the ground. I visited it every day until 

 four or five eggs were deposited. During incubation the female 

 showed no fear at my approacli. On bringing my hand close to the 

 nest she showed some inclination to pugnacity, and tried to frighten 

 me away with her open bill, following my hand round and round 

 when I attempted to touch her. At last she would only look anxiously 

 round to my finger without making any attack on me. The nest was 

 formed of small twigs of birch or heath outside and neatly lined with 

 hair." Its eggs are a bluish white spotted with purplish red. 



The noisy, familiar, impatient Sparrow is one of those creatures that 

 have attached thejnselves to man and follow him wherever he goes. 



Nothing seems to daunt this bold little bird, which is equally at 

 home in the fresh air of the country farm, in the midst of a crowded 



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The Sparrow^ {Pmser doviesficvs). 



city, or among the strange sights and sounds of a large railway-station- 

 treating with equal indifference the slow-paced wagon-horses as they 

 deliberately drag their load over the country roads, the noisy cabs and 

 omnibuses as they rattle over the city pavements, and the snorting, 

 puffing engines as they dash through the stations with a velocity that 

 makes the earth tremble beneath their terrible rush. 



Although its ordinary food consists of insects and grain, both of 

 which articles it can obtain only in the open country, it accommodates 

 itself to a town life with perfect ease, and picks up a plentiful subsist- 

 ence upon the various refuse that is thrown daily out of town-houses, 

 and which, before it is handed over to the dustman, is made by the 

 Sparrow to yield many a meal. 



When in the country the Sparrow feeds almost wholly on insects and 

 3i * 2 A 



