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CHAPTER VI. 



WORKERS ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 



THE HOUSE SPARROW. 

 (Passer domesticus.) 



THIS is among birds what the street-boy is in the towns- 

 merry, audacious, obtrusive and quarrelsome, always 

 moving and picking up what it can. A human 

 habitation without Sparrows is inconceivable. In the 

 street it rummages in the tracks of the horses; in the 

 markets, it sees when the stall-keeper is dozing, and 

 helps itself out of her basket to anything that takes its 

 fancy. 



When the wheat ears are soft it betakes itself to the 

 fields and fills its stomach and also feeds its young with 

 their milky juice ; when the corn is ripe he attacks it and 

 knocks more grains out of the ears than it can possibly 

 eat. It does the same with cherries, mulberries, and all 

 kinds of seeds. It also breaks off young buds and the 

 points of young shoots. 



It drags the Titmice out of their nest-holes and 

 establishes itself there. It presence is easy to recognise 

 by the straws sticking out of the hole. The only method 

 of preventing this is to make the entrance-hole narrower 

 and to hang the nest-hole lower down. 



It is true that when there is a great abundance of 

 cockchafers it consumes a great quantity of these 

 creatures ; but as soon as it finds something it likes 



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