186 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



HOUSE SPARROW, Passer domesticus. I now come 

 to our familiar old friend the House Sparrow, 

 common and impudent here as he is everywhere else, 

 a sturdy beggar about our houses for crumbs or any- 

 thing eatable in the winter, and partially retiring 

 to the corn-fields in summer and later on to the corn- 

 ricks to pick up a living by robbery : his food consists 

 of almost anything he can get, and is so varied that 

 although he is one of M. Prevost's birds he does not 

 attempt to give a list of the House Sparrow's food, 

 as be does that of other birds, but contents himself 

 with the following notice : " It varies its food 

 according to circumstances. In a wood, it lives on 

 insects and seeds ; in a village it eats seeds, grain, 

 grubs of butterflies, &c. ; in a city it lives on all 

 kinds of debris ; but it prefers cockchaffers and some 

 other insects to all other food." This I know is 

 contradicted by some writers, who affirm that it only 

 eats insects when no 'other food is to be had. I have, 

 however, myself constantly seen it eagerly devouring 

 spiders, after which it may be seen pertinaciously 

 peering into the corners of the windows, crevices in 

 walls, and deep cuttings in ornamental work; in 

 addition to this piece of out-door housemaid service 

 the House Sparrow is of great use in the garden by 

 the destruction, amongst other things, of caterpillars, 

 of which the food of the young birds in a great 

 measure consists. Amongst the various peccadilloes 

 committed by this species may be enumerated, 



