254 fringillldjE. 



birds were for a number of years very destructive to growing 

 peas, almost living upon and amongst them, perching on the 

 pea-rods, and with their strong bills, breaking through the pods 

 to get at the peas, which they ate, just when in perfection for 

 the table. But in the same place I have several times seen spar- 

 rows in chase of the large white garden-butterfly (Pontia bras- 

 sier), whose caterpillars are so destructive ; and have remarked 

 them fly against the stem of the dandelion [Leontodon taraxacum) 

 and weigh it to the ground, that they might feed upon the seeds. 

 These birds sometimes prove very annoying, especially in lofty 

 houses, by placing their nests in spouts, and thus stopping the 

 course of the rain.* Erom a country-house whence their nests 

 were for tin's reason always ejected, they resorted to the adjacent 

 trees, and in them erected their large and untidy, though domed 

 structures. For this purpose, the branches of the balm of gilead and 

 spruce firs, which naturally offered a firmer, more level, and com- 

 pact basement, than those of the deciduous trees, were preferred, 

 and when the latter were resorted to, the larch-fir was generally 

 chosen: the nests were chiefly composed of hay — a hay-loft being 

 adjacent — and lined with a profusion of feathers. Its feather-bed 

 nest, and habit of its sunning itself on our warmest days, evince 

 the sparrow's love of heat. At tins place they were much perse- 

 cuted ; above fifty having more than once been killed at a single 

 shot. It need hardly be remarked, that sparrows frequently 

 build in rookeries, as well as occupy the nest of the house martin. 

 The latter is generally noticed by authors as a very dishonest pro- 

 ceeding ; and though it is not my desire to be the apologist of 

 any of the manifold errors of the sparrow, still, justice has not 

 been done to the bird ; for the " pendent bed " of the martin is 

 generally tenantless when taken possession of, and the sparrow 

 may have no anticipation of the rightful owner coming across the 

 seas to claim the property. In like manner, the sparrow occasion- 

 ally takes possession of the burrow of the sand martin before the 



* A lady in Manchester, in the summer of 1841, lost a piece of valuable old lace, 

 which was left out to dry ; on the spouts being cleared of sparrows' nests, it was 

 discovered uninjured, partly lining one of them. 



