The House Sparrow. 65 



fancier who desires to see these handsome birds in his aviary 

 ia the full enjoyment of health, and ia all the hrilUanoe of 

 their feathering, must recollect that their natural diet, during 

 at least nine months of the year, is exclusively composed of 

 insects, and act accordingly; and he ■will then find that there 

 are not many more attractive birds than the Yellow-hammer. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE H0T7SE SPABECjW. 



THIS really handsome bird is not often seen to advantage 

 in our gloomy and grimy metropolis, where he is among 

 the "common objects" of the streets. 



We used to make pies of him in Prance, and I believe 

 such is his occasional destination even here, where at all events 

 his opima spoUa figure, in borrowed tints, on the hats and 

 bonnets of our wives and daughters, "our cousins, our sisters 

 and our aunts." 



The House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, U Moineau of the 

 French and der Haussperling of the Germans, is a stout thick- 

 set bird, five and three quarter inches in length, whose plumage 

 is of a dark, almost chesnut, shade of brown and ashen grey, 

 very prettily intermixed with black on the head, and yellowish 

 white on the wings; the beak, which is short and thick, is 

 of a bluish black colour, and the feet and legs are greyish 

 brown. 



The female is greyish red on the upper part of the body, 

 spotted with black on the back: her breast and belly are 

 greyish white. 



The young males at first resemble their mothers, but soon 

 develope the black marks on the face. 



In London, except for a very brief period after moulting, 

 these birds are of a dingy greyish brown colour, and occa- 



