392 PERCHING BIRDS. 



is light brown in the centre, bordered with dark brown, and followed by a broad 

 whitish brown eyebrow ; the wings and tail are blackish brown ; the cheeks, 

 throat, and under surfaces pale ashy brown ; and the lower throat varied with a 

 patch of pale yellow. 



The genus Passer contains the true sparrows, which are repre- 

 sented over the greater part of the Old World ; and, as restricted 

 by Mr. Oates, are characterised by both sexes exhibiting a peculiar pattern upon 

 the outer webs of the first primaries. The bill is stout and short, and the 

 abbreviated wings fall short of the tail by more than the length of the metatarsus. 

 Originally absent from the New World, the true sparrows have been introduced 

 into the United States, where they have become a serious pest, their injurious 

 character becoming more and more appreciated as the species spreads ; they are 

 indigenous to the greater part of the Old W T orld, excepting Australia and the 

 Moluccan Islands. 



The house - sparrow (P. domesticus), which nests only too 

 ' numerously in many country districts, is essentially a dweller among 

 men. With the members of its earlier brood ready to leave the nest in May, it 

 produces many broods in the season, sometimes evicting the house-martin from its 

 mud-plastered home, though occasionally the troublesome intruder is walled up by 

 the irate martins. The eggs of the house-sparrow are greenish white in ground- 

 colour, blotched or spotted with ashy grey and dusky brown. When the young- 

 are hatched, the old birds redouble their diligence in procuring food. It is 

 generally supposed that sparrows feed largely upon insects, and there is no doubt 

 that in many districts this is the case for a considerable part of the year. In 

 autumn these birds band tog-ether in flocks, and, leaving their haunts in street and 

 alley, join their country brethren in anticipating the farmer's harvest. Few 

 persons but practical men are at all aware of the vast injury annuall}' inflicted 

 upon the farming community by the hordes of sparrows which ravage the corn- 

 fields. Nor is their mischief limited to assailing standing crops of grain. On the 

 contrary, they inflict considerable injury upon gardeners by picking up freshly- 

 sown seeds of every kind. They destroy green peas quite as effectually as the 

 hawfinch, and are in many other respects most undesirable neighbours. In 

 America the influence of the house-sparrow has already proved disastrous to many 

 of the indigenous birds, which have been driven from their proper haunts by the 

 intruder. Even in remote districts of the Highlands of Scotland, the sparrow is 

 gaining ground every year, and taking the place of more welcome guests. The 

 sparrow builds a cumbrous nest of straw, hay, dry grass, rags, or any other 

 material that comes handy ; the nest being often placed in a waterspout, a chink 

 of a wall, the thatch of a barn, or the frieze of a building. Occasionally it is 

 placed in an open tree or hedgerow, but the nest is then domed as a protection 

 against the weather; and it is almost always profusely lined with feathers. 

 Taking great pains to maintain its plumage in good condition, the sparrow not 

 only indulges in frequent baths, like most of the finch tribe, but in summer shows 

 a partiality for dusting its feathers in lark fashion. Sparrows exhibit some pretty 

 variations of plumage ; all the birds in a brood being occasionally spotted with white, 

 or at any rate cream-coloured ; male birds in particular being frequently variegated 



