.ENGLISH SPABKOW. 341 



eggs are usually four, sometimes five. They are of a soiled white color, 

 spotted with very dark brown, and marked with zigzag, straight, and 

 wavy lines of blackish, as in the eggs of many of the Ideridse. They 

 measure .85 by .65. As soon as the young are able to fly they take to 

 trees, and from this time until their departure, this species is more ar- 

 boreal than in the spring and early summer. 



Genus PASSER. Briseon. 



Bill hhaped much as in the Purple Finch. Wings moderate, pointed, second quill 

 longest, but scarcely exceeding the first and third, which are equal. Tail two-thirds as 

 long as the wing, slightly forked ; tarsus as long as the middle toe; lateral toes equal. 



Passer domesticus (L.) Degland and Gerbe. 



!Et3glisli Sparro"w, 



Passer domesticus, Whbaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1874, 566; Ee- 

 print, 1675, 6, — Langdon, Cat. Birds of Gin., 1877, 9. 



Pyrgila domesliea, Langdon, Revised List, Joura. Cin. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 175; Re- 

 print, 9. 



Fringilla domesHca, Linn^us, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 323. 



Pyrgila domestica, Cuvier, Reg. An., 1829, 439. 



Passer domesticus, Degland and Gkkbe, Orn. Europ., i, 1867, 241. 



Male: above reddish brown, the back streaked with black; the crown and under 

 parts brownish ash, the chin and throat black; a white wing-bar. Female lacking the 

 black on chin and throat. Length, 6i; wing, about 3; tail, 2J. 



Introduced from Europe. Resident. Breeds. The English Sparrow 

 has been introduced into most of the cities and larger towns, and many 

 of the villages of the State, within the last ten years. They were at 

 first supposed to be a deadly foe to insects injurious to fruit and shade 

 trees, but this seems to have been an error, their only recommendation 

 being thai they are tolerable scavengers, but like most scavengers, they 

 are dirty themselves, and make nearly .as much dirt as they remove, and 

 are noisy without melody or other attractive traits. They are familiar 

 even to impudence, as might be expected from their having been natur- 

 alized without as much as making a "declaration of intention." 



When first introduced in this city they put on aristocratic airs, occu- 

 pied the cornices of the best hotels, business houses and palatial resi- 

 dences, and spent their leisure time only in the finest streets and parks. 

 Now they are content with humbler quarters. They seem to be shunned 

 by other birds, none but Cow-birds seeking their acquaintance. 



Their nest is placed in bird-boxes, crevices about houses, and some- 

 times in vines and evergreen trees. When built in holes and bird- 



