ROCK SPARROW. 125 



its young into orchards, giving them the fleshy part, 

 and then cracking the stone for the kernel with its 

 strong beak. When it catches large insects it bites 

 off the head, wings, and legs, and eats the body in 

 small pieces. It differs from other Sparrows in prefer- 

 ing oily to farinaceous seeds. 



The Rock Sparrow nests in the Rhine country, 

 in the neighbourhood of "Wiesbaden especially. They 

 build in high fruit trees, or in the holes of ruins of 

 old castles and watch-towers. They pick out a nar- 

 row and deep fissure in the walls, generally pretty 

 high up; they never build in woods. They will 

 return year after year to the same hole, and, like 

 other Sparrows, young and old sleep in them together. 

 The nest is like that of the House Sparrow; there 

 is a great heap of straw and stalks of grass, with 

 fine rootlets and other fibres of plants, old rags, and 

 thread, and it is lined with hair, worsted, wool, and 

 feathers in abundance. It is always placed so deeply 

 in the hole that the materials cannot be seen outside. 

 It appears from the authority of Brehm that they 

 only lay two or three eggs. Naumann, however, thinks 

 this is a local peculiarity and not general. The eggs 

 are very similar to those of the House Sparrow, but 

 larger, and equally as various. The ground colour is 

 a cloudy white, with ash-grey and brown dots marked 

 over with streaks and spots, through which much of 

 the ground colour appears. Those slightly marked 

 have often greater spots, others mostly small streaks 

 running over them, and the markings are generally 

 most numerous at the larger end. The grey marking 

 varies into brighter and darker, and the brown 

 changes from yellowish to reddish grey brown, and 

 even almost into blackish brown or slate-colour. 



