SPARROW. runner domesticus. 



retire to their several domiciles. One of my pupils used to catch numbers of Sparrows 

 by hiding in a haystack, watching them home, and drawing them out of their holes after 

 dark. 



The nest of the Sparrow 'is a very inartificial structure, composed of hay, straw, leaves, 

 and various similar substances, and always filled with a prodigious lining of feathers. 

 For, although the Sparrow is as hardy a bird as can be seen, and appears to care little for 

 snow or frost, it likes a warm bed to which it may retire after the toils of the day, and 

 always stuffs its resting-place full of feathers, which it gets from all kinds of sources. 

 Even their roosting-places are often crammed with feathers. 



Generally the nest is built in some convenient crevice, such as a hole in an old wall, 

 especially if it be covered with ivy ; but the bird is by no means particular in the choice 

 of a locality, and will build in many other situations. Every one who has watched a 

 rookery will have observed the numbers of Sparrows' nests that have been built under the 

 nests of the larger birds, so as to obtain a shelter from rain ; and many country house- 

 keepers have learned to their sorrow how fond the Sparrow is .of building in water-spouts, 

 thereby choking up the passage, and causing the house to be overflowed. There are 

 generally five eggs, though they sometimes reach the number of six, and their colour is 

 greyish white, profusely covered with spots arid dashes of grey-brown. They are, however, 

 extremely variable, and even in the same nest it is not uncommon to find some eggs that 

 are almost black with the mottlings, while others have hardly a spot or stripe about them. 

 The Sparrow is a very prolific bird, bringing up several broods in the course of a season, 

 and has been known to rear no less than fourteen young in a single breeding season. 



