BIRDS 269 



it is called tl^e English sparrow. It is not, by any means, 

 confined to England on the Eastern continent, for it is really 

 the house sparrow of Europe and Asia. This bird is now 

 widely distributed over the United States and the southern 

 portions of Canada. Throughout its range it is found 

 principally in towns and villages or around farm buildings 

 and along highways. It does not frequent mountaiuous or 

 forested regions. 



External features. — We find the same general arrange- 

 ment of the body parts as in the lizard ; namely, head, neck, 

 trunk, and tail, the latter much shorter than that of the 

 lizard. The limbs also differ markedly from those of the 

 lizard or frog. The limbs of the sparrow may be designated 

 as upper and lower, the former being modified into organs 

 of flight while the latter serve as organs of locomotion on 

 the ground and for perching. Over the whole body is a 

 covering of feathers, the most characteristic feature of all 

 birds. The anterior part of the sparrow's head is pro- 

 longed into a bony structure known as the beak. The tail 

 is furnished with long quill feathers. 



Plumage. — The body of the sparrow is not so uniformly 

 covered with feathers as it appears to be. In some places 

 the feathers are thin, in fact are entirely absent, while in 

 others they are very numerous and thick; but the thinner 

 areas are covered over by the feathers overlapping each 

 other so that no bare places are to be seen. There are four 

 kinds of feathers on the body of the sparrow: the quill 

 feathers, the contour feathers, the down feathers, and the 

 thread feathers. The long feathers on the tail and wings 

 are the quill feathers. The wing quills aid the sparrow in 

 flying and the tail quills, acting together, serve both as a 

 rudder and as a balancing apparatus when in the act of 



