BIRDS 137 



years ago a female Hawfinch was shot up on the top of Cross- 

 fell, migrating across country. 



All the other specimens that have been noticed in Cumber- 

 land occurred in the winter months, and sometimes quite in 

 the west of the county, as, for example, a Hawfinch shot near 

 Muncaster in February 1860. 



It is stated, in the fourth edition of Yarrell's British Birds, 

 that the Hawfinch has been recorded from every county in 

 England except Westmorland. This is a slight misconception. 

 Mr. Hindson shot a Hawfinch near Kirkby-Lonsdale in December 

 1841 ; while Mr. Eip shot a Hawfinch near Appleby in 1855. 

 It is still a rare bird in Westmorland, but a pair of Hawfinches 

 nested at Dallam Tower in 1890, for an unfledged nestling 

 was caught by the roadside and brought up by hand. When I 

 saw it, it was in full plumage — a charming tame bird which 

 fenced with one's finger, and was full of play. The Hawfinch 

 again nested at Dallam Tower in 1891. A village boy climbed 

 a tree and caught the old hen upon her nest. He had caged 

 her for a week, when she fell a victim to a cat. Two were 

 killed at Burton, in the same neighbourhood, in the winter, 

 1890-91. Mr. Murray preserved two more Hawfinches, shot 

 near Carnforth in the spring of 1891. 



HOUSE SPARROW. 



Passer domesticus (L. ). 



In olden days Sparrows appeared at the tables of ' la noblesse,' 

 as well as on the boards of their humble dependants. Thus I find 

 an entry in the Naworth Accounts of October 1621 : ' Sparrows, 

 2 dozen, iiij d.' In December of the same year there occurs 

 another note : ' Larkes and sparrows, three dozen [and] ten ixd.' 

 The chief merit of the Sparrow is its extraordinary fondness for 

 two domestic pests, house flies and ' black beetles.' I do not 

 think that the injury which the Sparrow inflicts on farmers is 

 compensated for by the quantity of ' grub ' that it destroys, but 

 some practical men hold a different opinion. The Rev. C. 

 Swainson states that the name of ' Craff ' applies to the Sparrow 



