LIFE ABOUT OUR HOMES IN FALL 73 



insects, and remedies against them, consult : Report of the Minnesota 

 Entomologist for 1895. 



34. The English Sparrow, or House Sparrow. 



MATERIAL : One or two live specimens in a cage. Recently killed 

 sparrows or good pictures may be substituted ; nest and eggs of spar- 

 rows. Previously observed : Sparrows molesting martins, bluebirds, 

 wrens, bank swallows, robins, catbirds, and other beneficial native 

 birds ; what the sparrow eats. 



This bird is so common in nearly every town and village 

 of the region for which this book is intended, that a descrip- 

 tion is necessary only for recently invaded localities. 



It is about as large as a canary bird, but stouter. Its 

 general color above is ashy, with black and chestnut stripes 

 on the shoulders and back. Over the eyes and on the sides 

 of the neck a dark chestnut mark can be distinctly seen. 

 The wings are also marked by one chestnut and by one 

 light bar bordered by a black line. The dark bill is cone- 

 shaped and very strong. The feet are brown, the tail gray, 

 and there is a dark mark on the breast. The female is paler 

 and does not show the bars and marks distinctly. 



Its history in America. Some poorly instructed would-be 

 benefactors of their country imported eight pairs from 

 England in 1850, and liberated them at Brooklyn, N. Y. 

 It was thought that the sparrow would exterminate various 

 insects injurious to shade trees in the streets and parks of 

 cities. A regular sparrow craze seems to have seized the 

 country in the last half of the sixties, as it is known that 

 within that period sparrows were imported to New Haven, 

 Conn., to Boston, Mass., and to Galveston, Tex. The city 

 government of Philadelphia imported a thousand sparrows 

 in one lot, in 1869. Within the next five years they were 

 imported to San Francisco, Cal., Salt Lake City, Utah; 



How are house plants generally propagated ? 



