Plate LIV. 



Fig 2. PASSER DOMESTIGUS-Engiish Sparrow. 



The English Sparrow has adapted itself so well to the climate of Ohio, that it is now necessary to 

 consider it among the permanent residents of the state. It generally builds its nest during the first 

 warm weather in March or April, and rears from two to four broods during the year. In mild winters 

 it is not uncommon for a few ambitious birds to begin nesting at any time; nests are probably built 

 every month of the year, but incubation is not often successful except during the warm months. 



LOCALITY: 



The English Sparrow frequents towns almost exclusively during the nesting season. Sometimes 

 however, a few may be found about country residences, and it is probable that as their numbers increase, 

 the country as well as the city will become infested with them. The nest is generally placed about the 

 cornice or a window cap of a building, in a bird-box, a densely clustered vine, a hollow limb, a forking 

 branch, or some such place which will afford a suitable protection from the weather. It is astonishing 

 with what courage and vigor they take possession of any available hole, crevice, or nook, and with what 

 pluck and stubbornness they defend their assumed rights. They insinuate themselves into every hole and 

 crevice about the cornice and windows of the best buildings on the principal streets of our cities. So 

 numerous are they that dozens of families are reared about a single building. It will not be necessary 

 to attempt an enumeration of the different situations in which the nest is placed, as it is found almost 

 any-where at times. 



POSITION: 



The nest is supported from below, at the sides, or from below and at the sides combined, according 

 as it is built in a cavity, a crevice, or in a forking limb. 



MATERIALS: 



Any thing which the builders can carry may be taken for construction purposes; but generally straws 

 rootlets, grasses, bits of paper, strings, horse-hairs, and feathers from the poultry-yard, compose the home. 

 The bulk of the nest is made of the coarser materials. The feathers are used for the lining. The 

 external dimensions of the nest vary with the situation. There is often half a bushel of rubbish in one 

 nest, and again scarcely a handful. The diameter of the cavity rarely varies three-eighths of an inch 

 from three inches. Usually the cavity is globular, with a side entrance, but sometimes an open nest is 

 constructed, in which case the cavity is about two inches deep. A nest built over my office door, in a 

 ventilating window, rests upon the sill between the glass and an iron grating. The entire space is nearly 

 filled with hay, straw, and coarse materials. The entrance to the cavity is at the left, and extends by a 

 narrow passage-way about a foot, where it opens into a globular-shaped room, about four inches in diam- 



191 



