BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 77 
1906 about a dozen settled on some bushes in my garden, 
and seemed to be after the snow-berries still hanging on 
the bare bushes. When these continued their flight, one 
stayed behind, a weakly hen. I noticed the bird from'time 
to time for a day or two, but I fancy the harmless but 
necessary cat would soon restore the old condition, and 
make us once more a sparrowless community." 
In the more cultivated districts this species has become 
a pest, since, as has been calculated by Mr. J. H. Gumey 
about seventy-five per cent, of an adult Sparrow's food during 
Its life IS com of some kind.* But when feeding its young 
which are wholly insectivorous, this bird confers great 
benefits on agriculture by the amount of noxious insects 
which are then consumed. Its predilection, however, for 
occupying the nests of such valuable and charming birds 
as the House-Martin makes it unwelcome even at this 
season. 
In early spring the Sparrows, which during the autumn 
and winter have gone about in flocks, resort more to the 
neighbourhood of houses, where they nest in rain-water 
pipes, holes m walls, in trees, and in fact almost anywhere 
Mr. W. F . Graham tells me that the Sparrows build in the 
old Rooks' nests at Wyseby (Kirkpatrick-Fleming) ; and 
^^^^^ commonly nesting in trees is attribu- 
table the numerous alleged occurrences of the Tree-Sparrow 
m the county. 
Piebald, white, or true albino specimens are frequently 
recorded, and the latter are, according to Mr. WilUam 
Laidlaw, very common in Canonbie, " Mabie Moss" 
m 1890 recorded that a female with greenish-yellow feathers 
on Its back was seen in Enghsh Street, Dumfries f Mr 
J. Harkness informs me of a " yellow " Sparrow seen in 
1908 at CockHck (Ruthwell), and that he once, some years 
ago, had a similar specimen sent him to stuff. 
An old rhyme, which our school-children, before the days 
* The House-Sparrow (1885), p. 17. 
t Dumfries Courier and Herald, April 10th, 1890. 
