COMMON SPARROW. 87 
COMMON SPARROW. 
Passer pomesticus, Linn. 
Pl. XIIIL., figs. 17-25; and Pl. XXXVIL., fig. 5. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally, excepting the extreme north; 
abundant and resident in Great Britain. 
_ Food.—Seeds, grain, refuse food (both farinaceous and animal) 
insects. 
Nest.—An enormous structure, usually carelessly put together, 
somewhat after the pattern of a Wren’s nest; formed externally of a 
quantity of straw, hay or grass bents, sometimes mixed with rags, 
paper, string, and occasionally a quill-feather or two from a poultry 
yard ; lined warmly with feathers, thin or crumpled paper, and other 
soft materials. 
Position of nest.—In ivy on a wall, in holes in walls, chimneys, or 
occasionally trees, in holes bored by the Sand Martin: in thatches or 
under eaves; frequently in tall trees or hedges. 
Number of eggs.—4-6. 
Time of nidification.—ITI-VI*; May. 
This ig the most pertinacious and impudent, as well as 
the most destructive and least useful of our British birds ; 
it appears to breed on and off for nearly the whole year, 
cases having been recorded of its rearing a brood in the 
depth of winter. Not only does it annoy one by littering 
the whole place with stubble and dust-hole refuse (which it 
heaps up under the impression that it is building a nest), 
with smashed eggs and writhing half-dead squabs, which, 
having fallen out with one another, have ended by falling out 
of the nest; not only does it wake up one at daybreak 
(however early that may be) by its senseless chirps and 
twitterings, but it drives from the premises all more attrac- 
tive birds which chance to be weaker than itself. For 
this service it pays itself by plucking to pieces every spring 
flower in the garden, eating every seed or seedling which is 
not protected, reducing carnations to shapeless stumps, 
scuffling about on the ground so as either to litter the path 
with earth or the flower-beds with gravel stones, occasion- 
ally picking up some fine juicy spider or soft green cater- 
pillar as a pretence of doing good ; in short, it is amongst 
birds what the Aphis is amongst insects. 
* This species is, however, very irregular, and has been known to 
breed in mid-winter as mentioned hereafter. 
