THE HOUSE SPARROW. 249 



and covering them with bird-lime. They may sometimes also 

 be caught, by covering with a net a cherry tree which is 

 nailed to a house, when they have retired to rest for the night. 



Attractive Qualities. If many birds be confined together in 

 a room, it may be worth while to admit a Sparrow or two, 

 especially, as they breed freely with the Tree Sparrow. For 

 this purpose, a male of the House Sparrow, and a female of 

 the Tree Sparrow must be selected, and placed in some re- 

 tired corner, provided with a box, or artificial nest in which 

 to build. 



The House Sparrow, especially in winter, maybe taught with- 

 out difficulty, to leave the house and return at call. All that is 

 necessary for this, is to keep it for a month in a large cage at 

 the window, plentifully provided with good food, such as millet, 

 meat, bread, &c. In such a cage it will sometimes breed. An 

 inmate of the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris, is said to have made 

 a Sparrow so tame, as to leave it perfectly at liberty without 

 any fear of losing it. It was ornamented with a small bell 

 round its neck. It would not allow itself to be touched by 

 any other person, yet was so fond of its master, that it could 

 not be induced to leave him, when at last he became bed- 

 ridden. On one occasion it was caught and deprived of its 

 bell, but after two days made its escape. It was, however, 

 melancholy, and refused all food, till a new bell had been pro- 

 vided. A. clergyman in Paris, also, is said to have had two 

 Sparrows, father and son, which were able to repeat the fourth, 

 fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments. It produced a highly 

 comic effect, when in their quarrels over their food, one of 

 them would gravely admonish the other " Tu ne voter as pas ." 

 (Thou shalt not steal.) 



ADDITIONAL. Of this well-known type of the great Passerine 

 family, which we hear chirping and twittering arouiid us from 

 morning to night, and at all seasons of the year, KNAPP, in his 

 Journal, justly remarks, after alluding to the fecundity of the 

 bird, which enables it to maintain its numbers, notwithstanding 

 the hostile attacks to which it is exposed, " we have scarcely ano- 

 ther bird, the appetite of which is so accommodating in all re- 

 spects as that of the House Sparrow. It is, I believe, the only 

 bird that is a voluntary inhabitant with man, lives in his society 

 and is his constant attendant, following him wherever he fixes 

 his residence. It becomes immediately an inhabitant of the new 

 farm-house, in a lonely place or recent enclosure, or even in an 



