HOUSE SPARROW. 305 



end of May. About that time they pair oif, and are actively engaged 

 in their domestic duties till some time in August, when the males 

 throw off their gaudy summer dress and join with the females and 

 young in making up the flocks we see roving about the country in 

 their own wild way. 



Genus PASSER (Beisson). 

 PASSER DOMESTICUS (Linn.). 



220. House Sparrow. 



Form, stout and stumpy ; bill, stout, conical, bulging, longer than deep ; 

 upper mandible longer than the lower. Adult male : — Lores, black, a narrow 

 streak of white over each eye ; crown, nape and lower back, ash-gray ; region 

 of the ear coverts, chestnut-brown, streaked with black ; wings, brown, with a 

 bar of white on the middle coverts ; tail, dull brown ; throat and breast, black, 

 sometimes suffused with bright chestnut checks, and sides of the neck white ; 

 belly, dull white ; bill, bluish-black ; legs, pale brown. Length, 6 inches ; 

 wing, 3 inches. In winter the colors are duller and the^Dill yellowish-brown. 

 In the female the upper parts are striated dusky brown ; there is no black on 

 the throat or gray on the pate, and the under parts are brownish-white. 



Hab. — From the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi and from New Orleans to 

 Saulte Ste. Marie ; many isolated colonies elsewhere throughout the country, 

 some of which have originated by the birds being brought from a distance 

 through being accidentally closed in empty grain cars. 



Nest, about houses, under projecting cornices or in crevices in outhouses, 

 also in trees ; large and clumsy outside, but deep and warmly lined with hair, 

 feathers and other soft material. 



Eggs, varying in number from six to nine, soiled white, speckled with 

 brown. 



The name English Sparrow is a misnomSr as applied to this bird, 

 for it is no more English than it is Scotch, Irish, French, or German. 

 House Sparrow is the name it has gone by in Europe, whence it 

 came, and it was no doubt bestowed on account of its persistent habit 

 of nesting about dwelling-houses wherever it occurs. 



Throughout Europe, in former years, when very many of the 

 houses were covered with thatch, the constant habit of the sparrows 

 was to pull out as much of the thatch as made a hole big enough 

 for them to buUd their nest in. This, of course, led to leaky roofs; 

 and the result was a constant warfare between the outer and inner 

 tenants, in which the former usually gained their object. Sometimes 

 there would only be one ladder in a large district, and it could not 

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