THE HOUSE SPARROW 



PASSER DOMESTICUS 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and^widely 

 distributed resident, but scarce and local in uncultivated 

 districts. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : The House Sparrow enjoys the unique position 

 of being the commonest and by far the most abundant 

 of London's birds. From the great cathedral, which we 

 have taken as the centre of our radius, and on which the 

 House Sparrow congregates and breeds in abundance, to 

 the outermost and most rural of the suburbs of the 

 Metropolis a vast area thirty miles across this species 

 abounds. There is scarcely a street, however mean or 

 grimy or crowded, there is scarcely a building, however 

 humble or palatial, that does not afford it a refuge or 

 upon which it may not be seen. It stuffs its untidy 

 nests into the crevices of every kind of building, or amongst 

 the carvings of statuary, the effigies of royalty being shown 

 no more respect than the stone or plaster equivalents of 

 less exalted personages. London may be described as a 

 huge colony of House Sparrows, possibly numbering mil- 

 lions, and in certain spots, such as in the grain docks, in 

 some of the public parks Hyde Park, for instance and 

 at the Zoological Gardens, their numbers are literally 

 enormous. There is a perceptible exodus in summer to 

 the outlying districts, where grain-fields are an attrac- 

 tion, but otherwise the Sparrow is ever in evidence. 



Changed conditions of life have produced many note- 

 worthy characteristics in the House Sparrow during, say, 

 the past Jive hundred years or more. Not the least 

 interesting of these is its gregarious habits. It is the only 

 British Finch that lives in colonies throughout the year. 



