52 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



recently greatly increased and multiplied ; ten years 

 since it was quite a rare bird in this neighbourhood. 

 I have found the crops and gizzards of the Tree- 

 Sparrow filled with the seeds of Plant ago major. 



87. PASSER DOMESTICUS (Linnaeus). House- 

 Sparrow. 



There has been during the last ten years a marked 

 luorease in the numbers of our familiar domestic bird, 

 due probably in some measure to the larger area under 

 cereals, but more especially to their present almost 

 complete immunity from persecution during the 

 nesting-season. A few years ago ' ' Sparrow money " 

 was a regular entry on the books of most of our 

 parishes ; but I find the time-honoured custom has 

 now in a great measure been discontinued, and there 

 is consequently not the same inducement to every idle 

 urchin of the village to collect the nestlings. 



Mr. Boulton, in the ' Zoologist' for 1865, p. 9531, 

 speaks of a breed of Black Sparrows at Leven, in 

 Holderness : the males deep blackish brown, so 

 black as to be only distinguished from that colour 

 when in hand; the females are a shade lighter; 

 young covered with slaty-black down. 



White and party-coloured varieties also occasionally 

 occur. A common form is with more or less of the 

 primaries white. 



