THE HOUSE SPARROW. 255 



vernal return of this species to the place of its birth ; and perched 

 at the entrance of its neighbour's burrow, the intruder certainly 

 peers about, and chatters with as much confidence, as if the domi- 

 cile were its own by "right of descent." But few writers on 

 natural history would seem to have observed the sparrow in such 

 situations. I have frequently done so, even when the sand-bank 

 was in the close vicinity of trees and houses, the ordinary nesting 

 places of the species. The following paragraph appeared in the 

 Glasgow Argus, in May, 1846 : — 



"Sea Sparrows. Last week, on the Aurora leaving the Broo- 

 mielaw for Belfast, a sparrow's nest was discovered in the rigging, 

 but the birds did not choose on that occasion to accompany their 

 nest to the Green Isle. On the return of the vessel, however, the 

 sparrows again visited their former abode, which had not been dis- 

 turbed by the voyage, and deposited an egg in it, which attached 

 them so much to it, that they valorously left their native land, 

 and sailed with the Aurora for Ireland." A considerable time 

 after this was said to have occurred, I had inquiry made respect- 

 ing the circumstance. The mate of the vessel corroborated all 

 from his own observation, except the statement that the birds had 

 crossed the channel, but, he added that they might have done 

 so without his knowledge. The nest rested partly on the sail and 

 was destroyed, by its being unfurled, when containing one or two 

 eggs. The vessel then sailed every second day from Glasgow to 

 Belfast.* 



Examples of this bird partly, and some altogether white, occa- 

 sionally occur ; a friend has seen three white individuals in one nest. 

 Mr. J. V. Stewart remarks, in his Catalogue of the Birds, &c, of 

 Donegal: — "I have had a female milk-white sparrow in confine- 

 ment for two years ; it was of this colour when taken from the 

 nest. At its moults there has been no change in the colour of 

 its plumage : it has got the red eyes of all albinoes."f Mr. R. 

 Davis, junr., of Clonmel, mentions in a letter, that in February, 



* A representation of an unfortunate sparrow "hung by the neck," accidentally, 

 will be found in the Illustrated London News of January 20th, 1844, and YarrelTs- 

 Brit. Birds, 2nd edit. 



f Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 583. 



