126 THE BIEDS OF SUSSEX. 



say of itj save that it is about equally destructive and bene- 

 ficial to the interests of the agriculturist, for, though it 

 appropriates to itself large quantities of grain, it also rids 

 them of immense multitudes of injurious insects. It is a 

 most familiar as well as impudent bird, of which I may give 

 one remarkable instance. A lady at my own house at Cowf old, 

 watched one of them coolly plucking the feathers from the 

 back of a so-called Sicilian Dove {Turtur risorius), which 

 was sitting on its nest in a somewhat bare Arbor vital, 

 immediately under her bedroom- window. So many singular 

 situations which the Sparrow has chosen for its nest have 

 been described by others, that, although it has nothing to do 

 with the Birds of Sussex, I cannot refrain from mentioning 

 one, and this was in the mouth of Thorwaldsen's celebrated 

 statue of the Lion, at Lucerne, greatly diminishing the 

 dignity of the figure. The grimy appearance of the Sparrow 

 of our towns, and the bright and sprightly aspect of those of 

 the country, make them appear so distinct, that Mr. Booth 

 has facetiously given in his ' Bough Notes ' an admirably 

 characteristic plate of each. 



A Sparrow pudding is a favourite Sussex dish, and by no 

 means to be despised. Many hundreds are annually taken 

 in nets at night, and I have many times when a young man 

 joined in the amusement of catching these birds. 



HAWFINCH. 



Coccothraiistes vulgaris. 



The Hawfinch is resident, and is met with occasionally in all 

 the wooded portions of the county, in early spring singly, 

 and after the beginning of April, in pairs. By the middle of 



