Genus PASSER. 
Passer, Brisson, Orn. iii. p. 72 (1760). 
¢Pyrrhula apud Brisson, tom. cit. p. 314 (1760). 
Fringilla apud Linneeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 323 (1766). 
tLoxia apud Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 854 (1780). 
Pyrgita apud Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 554. 
Loxia apud Lichtenstein, fide Less. Traité d’Orn. p. 439 (1831). 
Corospiza apud Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 511 (1850). 
THE Sparrows form a very natural group, and one which, though closely allied to the other 
groups of Finches, is well worthy of generic separation. They follow closely on the footsteps 
of civilization, and have therefore spread over the Palearctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, 
and have also been introduced into the Nearctic and Australian Regions, where they are rapidly 
spreading. Five species are resident in the Western Palearctic Region. They inhabit groves, 
gardens, woods, and especially places close to human habitations. They are active, noisy birds, 
tame, and fearless to a degree, omnivorous, though chiefly feeding on seeds and insects. They 
have no regular song, but only a chirp, which, however, is frequently modulated into a succession 
of pleasing notes. They build bulky nests, dome-shaped, constructed of straws &c., lined with 
feathers, and placed either in a tree or a hole or under the eaves of a roof, and deposit dull-white 
eggs closely freckled and marked with grey and brown. 
Passer domesticus, the type of the genus, has the bill moderately short, conical, straight, 
nearly as broad as high at the base; nostrils basal, round, nearly hidden by recurved stiff 
feathers; wing moderately long, rather broad, the first quill very small and attenuated, the 
three next almost equal in length, the third, if any thing, the longest; tail moderately long, 
slightly emarginate; legs rather stout, the tarsus covered in front with four large and three 
inferior scutelle ; toes rather slender, claws moderately long, arched, laterally grooved, acute. 
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