250 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



island ; will accompany him into the crowded city, and build and 

 feed therein, content, unmindful of the noise, and the smoke of the 

 furnace, or the steam-engine, where even the Swallow and the 

 Martin, that flock around him in the country, are scared by the 

 tumult, and leave him ; but the Sparrow, though begrimed with 

 soot, does not forsake him ; feeds on his food, rice, potatoes, or 

 almost any other extraneous substance he may find in the street ; 

 looks to him for his support, and is maintained almost entirely 

 by the industry and providence of man. It is not known in a 

 solitary and independent state." 



YAEEELL observes, that "occasionally the Sparrow builds 

 among the higher branches of apple or pear-trees in a garden, 

 sometimes in other trees, but seldom choosing one that is far 

 from a house ; and the nest, when thus placed in a tree, is re- 

 markable for its large size, as compared to the bird ; it is formed 

 with a dome, and composed, as in other cases, of a mass of hay, 

 lined within with a profusion of feathers, to which access is 

 gained by a hole in the side. So great is the partiality of the 

 Sparrow for warmth, that abundance of feathers are used even to 

 line a hole on the inner side of the thick thatching of a barn, and 

 they have been seen collecting feathers in winter, and carrying 

 them away to the holes they inhabited. Their young are fed for 

 a time with soft fruits, young vegetables, and insects, particu- 

 larly caterpillars, and so great ia the number of these that are 

 consumed by the parent birds, and their successive broods of 

 young, that it is a question whether the benefit thus performed 

 is not a fair equivalent for the grain and seeds required at other 

 seasons of the year." 



This author also quotes an anecdote from vol. i. of the Zoolo- 

 gical Journal, in proof of the Sparrow's attachment to its young : 

 it is there stated, that " a pair of Sparrows, which had built in a 

 thatch roof of a house at Poole, were observed to continue their 

 regular visits to the nest long after the time when the young 

 birds take flight. This unusual circumstance continued through- 

 out the year ; and in the winter, a gentleman who had all along 

 observed them, determined on investigating its cause. He there- 

 fore mounted a ladder, and found one of the young ones detained 

 a prisoner, by means of a piece of string or worsted, which formed 

 part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted round its 

 leg. Being thus incapacitated for procuring its own sustenance, 

 it had been fed by the continued exertions of its parents. Similar 

 instances are recorded in other works on natural history." 



MR. KIDD, of Hammersmith, states that the Sparrow is a fine 

 songster, when placed under proper tutelage, equalling, if not ex- 

 celling the Canary. It is certainly a classical bird, celebrated by 



