112 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
bate habit of seizing upon the nests of the House 
Martin, the unfortunate owner being no match, as 
a rule, for the sturdy and persistent Sparrow. The 
Sparrow is not habitually a very early nester, and 
the third or fourth week in April is the usual time 
for the first batch of eggs ; but it sometimes begins 
much earlier, and often goes on breeding into 
August, or even later. Four to six eggs are 
usually laid, pale greyish-white, with markings of 
brown, black, and ashy-grey, which vary greatly 
both in size and abundance. Some eggs are 
thickly freckled all over with small streaks and 
specks, while others are boldly and openly marked 
with large blotches, and there is every intermediate 
variety between these two types. While the young 
birds are in the nest they are mainly fed on cater- 
pillars, and to this extent the Sparrow does the 
farmer and gardener good service. But by the 
time that the corn is cut and stacked the depreda- 
tions of the old and young birds together have far 
more than counterbalanced their earlier good deeds, 
and the destruction of the Sparrow wherever pos- 
sible is as necessary and desirable as the too 
frequent killing of all sorts of other small birds 
by the members of so-called "Sparrow Clubs" is 
absolutely unjustifiable and senseless^ 
