The Blackbird.'] OF ORKNEY. 59 



but, like most of the smaller birds, they attain their true co- 

 lours at about a year old. 



GENUS IX THE GROSBEAK. 



Gen. Char.' Bill strong, convex above and below, very thick at the base ; nos- 

 trils small and round ; tongue, as if cut off at the end. 



Species 1. The Sparrow. 



The House- Sparrow, Wil. Orn. 249. Raii Syn. Av. 86. Fringilla Domestica, 

 Lin. Sys. 323. Brit. Zool. 300. Brit. Zool. Illus. tab. 65. Jig. 1, 2. 



MR PENNANT, in the British Zoology, has placed the spar- 

 row among the Grosbeaks, and made it and the greenfinch 

 connect these with the finches ; and, indeed, the strength and 

 largeness of the bill seems to favour the placing it there, 

 though Linnaeus has ranked it with the finch tribe. 



Sparrows are here in myriads; make a vast destruction 

 amongst early corns : I have seen a small field of early bar- 

 ley almost all picked by these little voracious wanderers. 



Build everywhere, in holes of walls, and wherever they can 

 get the least shelter ; often beat the stares from the holes left 

 in the walls for them, by our good-natured Stromnesians, and 

 possess them in spite of the tenant, and to the grief of the 

 owners, who are fond of the mimic-songster stareling, but 



