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BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
HOUSE-SPARRr)\V. Passer clomesticns (Liniueus). 
“ Thack (or Thatch)-Sparrow.” 
Resident, and far too common, breeding everywhere ; its playful little 
ways, however, endear it to the agriculturist and floriculturist, for, to the 
former it cannot fail to be a source of great gratification that his seeds do not 
come up in an over-crowded condition, and the pleasurable emotions which it 
calls into being in the breast of the latter, when he is saved the trouble of 
taking cuttings of his choice carnations, or of saving the flowers of his crocuses, 
can be better imagined than described ; now and then, however, it condescends 
to pick half-a-dozen or so Aphides from the rose-trees — together with the buds, — 
and, to the plumber, from its habit of blocking up the spouts, it is a source of 
never- failing joy and profit. Our American cousins have, I believe, by this time, 
found out that the English Sparrow, “ quite English, you know,” imported at 
so much trouble and expense many years ago, has fully repaid them for their 
care, by finding employment for many hundreds of prominent citizens, who 
might otherwise have been walking about with their hands in their pockets. 
Subject to much variation of colour. — A white one was seen about Melton 
in 1884. It nested, and amongst the brood was one somewhat resembling the 
parent. The late Air. Widdowson had a hen bird of this species dusky all 
over, with the margins of the primaries and secondaries dark brown, the chest 
and under parts being of a sooty tint. This was presented to the Aluseum 
by his widow, in 1888. Betvreen Aylestone and Knighton, on 12th Jan., 1884, 
I shot a male with bright chestnut wings and back, and dark chestnut throat. 
Another, which I shot near the Cattle-market, Aylestone Road, on 7th F'eb., 1884, 
had the wings white, each feather margined with pale chestnut ; upper wing- 
coverts and back light chestnut ; head paler than ordinary ; under parts greyish- 
white, as if faded ; tail, a dull white. Apparently it was a male, but dissection 
shewed that it might be a barren female assuming other plumage. 
jNIr. R. Hazlewood recorded in the ‘ Leicester Chronicle and Mercury ’ of the 
3rd Oct., 1885, that, some years before, he remembered seeing, at Lindridge 
House, several white Sj>arrows, and that the then resident, a Captain Morton, 
“ was very choice of them, and would not have them caught or destroyed.” He 
also reported a snuff-coloured one in his own possession. The JMuseum possesses 
two purely-white examples, but unfortunately there is no record of date nor 
locality. Air. Davenport writes me that he saw a beautiful pied variety at 
Thumby, in the winter of 1886-7. Harriman, Sexton of S. Margaret’s Church, 
informed me that he had repeatedly seen a white Sparrow about the 
churchyard in Nov., 1887. Two young white Sparrows were shot at Bardon 
Hill, on 9th July, 1888, by Mr. J. B. Ellis, and presented by him to the 
jMuseum. They were yellowish-white, and had pink eyes. One had faint 
indications of a narrow brown line across the secondaries, and the other had 
