HOUSE-SPARROW. 67 



to the crops the seeds of the charlock and the dock and other noxious 

 weeds ; but as a set-off against this it devours an astonishing amount of 

 grain. It feeds on larvae and perfect insects, but it also levies a con- 

 siderable tithe from the fruit-trees. Kept in proper bounds, the Sparrow 

 is undoubtedly a useful bird ; but its increase is so rapid, its conditions of 

 life so smooth, and its enemies so few, that, unless artificial means be 

 taken to keep its numbers in check, it soon becomes a perfect pest. I 

 have known farmers in the north of England cease from growing corn at 

 all, or only in the smallest quantities, entirely owing to the inroads of the 

 House-Sparrow ! and I have seen fields of corn so stripped by these 

 destructive birds that the straw was the only recompense the poor farmer 

 got for his outlay of time and seed. Of course this is only in the neigh- 

 bourhood of large towns. It is not what the birds absolutely eat, although 

 one Sparrow will take its own bulk of corn in a day, but it is what they 

 waste in the process, by shaking it to the ground or breaking the straws. 

 The Sparrow must be kept under ; and this is the opinion of every farmer 

 who has the ill luck to follow his plough near a town. The bird 

 has been introduced into the United States, and its increase there is so 

 rapid that the day will come when our American cousins will repent of 

 having introduced such a destructive souvenir of 'home/ After the 

 young are reared the Sparrows unite into flocks and (that is to say the 

 country-bred ones) retire to the fields, where they live chiefly upon grass- 

 seeds until the corn is ripe. These flocks are often composed of many 

 hundreds of birds ; and a British farmer usually looks upon their visits 

 to his fields with as much dismay as an Eastern farmer does upon a flock 

 of locusts." 



The House-Sparrow is not at all migratory in this country; but that it 

 occasionally wanders from home is proved by the fact of its being taken on 

 migration on Heligoland. The immense flocks of this species that frequent 

 our fields in autumn would almost lead us to suppose that the number of 

 Sparrows was increased by migrants from the continent ; for the number 

 of birds in the towns is not visibly decreased ; but upon closer exami- 

 nation it will probably be found that these hordes of Sparrows are mostly 

 young birds. Although the Sparrow is a very hardy bird, it is undoubtedly 

 a migrant in the coldest portion of its range. In the valley of the Petchora 

 it did not appear to arrive until early in May. 



The House-Sparrow has the crown, nape, lower back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts bluish grey ; over the lores and the eye is a narrow white 

 streak ; behind the eye and surrounding the ear-coverts and the sides of 

 the neck is a broad chestnut baud ; the upper back is very dark brown, 

 each feather edged with reddish brown; the wings and tail are brown, 

 across the former is a broad white bar, caused by the lesser wing-coverts 

 being broadly tipped with white; the lores, throat, and fore neck are 



