238 CLASS AVES. 



The same family, however, will remain assembled together 

 for some time. The young follow their mother, and may 

 be killed, one after another, with a cross-bow, providing that 

 she be taken down first. The young will then not fly away, 

 but crowd together the more of them that fall ; but if the 

 mother should be missed, she will be off, and take the young 

 ones with her. 



The flight of the sparrows is short and difficult. They 

 cannot raise themselves to any height, and when they depart 

 in flocks, it is always at once, quickly, and with considerable 

 noise. They are not migrating birds. They do not change 

 their district, and there they may be observed to pursue the 

 maturity of the different kinds of grain on which they feed. 

 They disdain to fix in barren countries, and flock to those 

 where the harvest is most abundant. We may judge, with 

 certainty, of the fecundity of a country, by where the spar- 

 rows are most numerous. They are sometimes found in the 

 most secluded and solitary spots, where a farm, surrounded 

 by cultivated fields, and provided with a poultry-yard, and a 

 pigeon-house, off'ers them an easy and abundant subsistence. 



The sparrows are of a robust constitution, and can support, 

 with equal ease, the heat of the most burning climates, and 

 the extreme cold of northern regions. They are found ex- 

 tended through Greece, and northern Africa ; and, again, on 

 the other hand, they are found as far north as Siberia. 

 Though common enough through a considerable part of 

 Africa, they have not been seen along the western coast of that 

 continent. This cannot be attributed to the heat of the cli- 

 mate, since they can endure that of Egypt ; but it is the 

 difference of the alimentary plants in these regions, which 

 causes this diff*erence. Corn, and productions of a similar 

 nature, are cultivated in Egypt, as well as in Syria and Bar- 

 bary. They cease to be so about the environs of the White 

 Cape. They are replaced by other nutritive plants, among 



