90 SPAKEOW. 



ing four eggs; and on the 22nd. of the following February 

 one was observed building its nest in the spout of the school- 

 room at the same place, by .Robert John Bell, Esq., of 

 Mickleover House, near Derby. Sometimes, and not very 

 rarely, I believe, even four broods have been known to be 

 produced in the same year. The young birds often come 

 abroad before they are well able to provide by effective flight 

 for their security, and thus individuals are frequently either 

 pushed accidentally from the nests, or lose their footing and 

 totter over, falling to the ground. Almost as soon as they 

 are partially able to take care of themselves, they are 

 attended by the male alone, and the female prepares again 

 for a new family. As soon as the nest is ready, the first 

 brood are left to themselves, but they still remain about the 

 premises, roosting at night with other individuals either 

 older or younger. The male birds, while the hen is sitting, 

 roost somewhere in the neighbourhood. When the young 

 are abroad and fed by the old ones, the latter carry them- 

 selves in an erect manner, with a sort of pride in their 

 deportment, and the former testify their wishes with a 

 quivering of the wings and a constant chirping. 



The first set of eggs generally consists of five or six. 

 They are dull light grey, or greyish white, much spotted 

 and streaked all over with ash-colour and dusky brown, 

 varying much in appearance, though preserving for the most 

 part, a general resemblance. They also differ very frequently 

 and very much in size and shape. 



The Sparrow is a stout thick-set bird. Male; length, a 

 little over six inches to six and a quarter; bill, bluish lead- 

 colour. From its base, which is yellowish in winter, a black 

 streak runs backwards to the eye. Iris, hazel, that is, dark 

 brown; the space in front of it has the feathers tipped with 

 grey, as are those which compose a line under the eye, and 

 one of a deep chesnut brown over it, which latter is 

 terminated behind by a small white dot. From the eye a 

 broad band of chesnut brown runs down each side of the 

 neck, meeting together behind. Head on the crown, fine 

 bluish grey in the summer, but more dull, by the tips of 

 the feathers being faded, in the autumn and winter; neck 

 on the sides, greyish white, fading into yellowish grey, on 

 the front black, many of the feathers tipped with grey; nape, 

 fine dark rufous brown. Chin and throat, deep black, but 

 many of the feathers are tipped with grey in the autumn 



