XXVIII 



SPARROWS, TROUT, AND SELECTIVE 

 BREEDING 



THE talk about the urgent need for the destruction 

 of sparrows reminds me that the word " sparrow " 

 is applied commonly in this country to at least two very 

 different but common birds. No doubt farmers and 

 gardeners know well enough the house-sparrow (Passer 

 domesticus or Fringilla domestica of Linnaeus), which is 

 the one they consider injurious. But some boys and 

 some newly-fledged proprietors of country places may 

 inadvertently confuse the house - sparrow with a very 

 different bird, though only a little smaller and of a 

 general brown colouring, also called " sparrow," namely, 

 the hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis}. 



The hedge-sparrow is a true denizen of the country. 

 It does not live on grain, but on insects and grubs, and 

 is useful on that account to agriculturists. Its eggs are 

 pure blue. A spotted egg of a cuckoo laid amongst them 

 readily catches the eye, so that cuckoos' eggs are often 

 found in hedge-sparrows' nests. It seems that it is all a 

 mistake on the part of the cuckoo hen when this occurs. 

 The strain of cuckoos properly attached to hedge-sparrows 

 lay a beautiful blue egg differing only in its somewhat 

 larger size from those of the hedge-sparrow itself, and 

 hence difficult to detect. These blue cuckoo-eggs proper 



