182 BBITISH BIRDS 



some eggs the ground-colour is buff. The young are fed on cater- 

 pillars, and only one brood is reared. After leaving the nest the 

 young birds live with the parents, and sometimes several families 

 unite into a flock ; as many as a hundred birds, or more, may be 

 seen together. 



In autumn and winter the hawfinches feed on seeds of various 

 kinds hornbeam, beech, yew, and hawthorn. The kernels only of 

 the haws are eaten ; and, in like manner, cherries and other fruits are 

 robbed for the sake of the kernel, the hard stones being split open 

 with the powerful beak. 



House- Sparrow. 

 Passer domesticus. 



Lores black ; a narrow white streak over each eye ; crown, nape, 

 and lower back ash-grey ; region of the ear- coverts chestnut ; back 

 chestnut-brown streaked with black ; wings brown, with white bar 

 on the middle coverts ; tail dull brown ; throat and breast black ; 

 cheeks and sides of neck white ; belly dull white. Length, six 

 inches. Female : without the black on the throat, and upper parts 

 striated dusky brown. 



More, far more, has been written about the sparrow than about 

 any other bird, but as it is not advisable here to enter into the contro- 

 versy on the subject of the injury he inflicts, or is believed by many 

 to inflict, on the farmer and gardener, a very brief account of its 

 habits will suffice. They are almost better known to most persons 

 than the habits of the domestic fowl, owing to the universality of 

 this little bird, to its excessive abundance in towns as well as in 

 rural districts, and to its attachment to human habitations. For 

 his excessive predominance there are several causes. He is exceed- 

 ingly hardy, and more adaptive than other species ; his adaptive- 

 ness makes it possible for him to exist and thrive in great smoky 

 towns like London. He is sagacious beyond most species, and al- 

 though living so constantly with or near to man, he never loses his 

 suspicious habit, and of all birds is the most difficult to be trapped. 

 He is very prolific : as soon as the weather becomes mild, at the 

 end of February or in March, he begins to breed, and brood after 

 brood is reared until September, or even till November if the weather 

 proves favourable. He also possesses an advantage in his habit of 



