180 HOUSE-SPARROW. 
side, reaches Innsbruck. In Sardinia, Sicily and Malta we find 
only P. hispaniolensis, also with a chestnut head, but much blacker 
on the throat and flanks. In Spain our bird keeps to the towns, 
and does not seem to clash with P. hispaniolensis, which there 
breeds in the woods, often occupying the foundations of inhabited 
nests of large birds of prey. Westward, the House-Sparrow occurs 
in Madeira, but apparently not in the other Atlantic islands. In 
Africa it is found from Morocco to the Albert Nyanza; while it 
swarms in South Arabia and at Aden. Introduced, like the rabbit, 
through officious ignorance, in Australia, New Zealand, and the 
United States, it has become such a curse that special legislation has 
been loudly invoked for its destruction. 
The well-known nest, of straw, hay, dry grass and all sorts of odd 
materials, thickly lined with feathers, is placed indifferently in trees, 
among climbing plants, under the eaves of roofs, in the spouts of 
water-pipes, in holes in walls, and those in banks originally excavated 
by the Sand-Martin; in fact almost everywhere. The 5-6 eggs 
are pale bluish-white, blotched, speckled or suffused with ash- and 
dusky-brown and black: measurements ‘9 by ‘6 in. Three broods 
are frequently reared in the season. ‘The young are fed upon cater- 
pillars and the larve of various destructive insects, and in this 
respect the Sparrow is beneficial ; but there is abundant evidence 
that during the greater part of the year an enormous amount of 
grain &c., is devoured, and the consensus of opinion appears to be 
that, while extermination is not advocated (nor practicable), the 
increase of this species should be checked. By deferring the 
destruction of the insect-fed young until they are fledged, the greatest 
amount of usefulness may be extracted from this bird, which causes 
incalculable harm by dislodging the House-Martin and other insec- 
tivorous species. 
Adult male: lores black ; a narrow streak of white over each eye ; 
crown, nape and lower back ash-grey; region of the ear-coverts 
chestnut ; back chestnut-brown streaked with black ; wings brown, 
with a bar of white on the middle coverts ; tail dull brown; throat 
and breast black, sometimes suffused with bright chestnut ; cheeks 
and sides of the neck white; belly dull white ; bill bluish-black ; 
legs pale brown. Length 6 in.; wing 3 in. In winter the colours 
are duller and the bill is yellowish-brown. In the female the upper 
parts are striated with dusky-brown ; there is no black on the throat 
or grey on the crown, and the under parts are brownish-white. The 
young bird is deeper brown both above and below; the middle 
wing-coverts are tipped with buff; the bill is dull yellow. 
