THE COMMON SPARROW. 
150 
other engines of destruction so reduce them in the 
winter season, that the swarms of autumn gradually di- 
minish, till their numbers in spring are in no way re- 
markable. I have called them plunderers, and they 
are so; they are benefactors likewise, seeming to be 
appointed by nature as one of the agents for keeping 
from undue increase another race of creatures, and by 
their prolificacy they accomplish it. In spring and the 
early part of the summer, before the corn becomes ripe, 
they are insectivorous, and their constantly increasing 
families require an unceasing supply of food. We see 
them every minute of the day in continual progress, 
flying from the nest for a supply, and returning on rapid 
wing with a grub, a caterpillar, or some reptile ; and 
the numbers captured by them in the course of these 
travels are incredibly numerous, keeping under the in- 
crease of these races, and making ample restitution for 
their plunderings and thefts. When the insect race 
becomes scarce, the corn and seeds of various kinds are 
ready ; their appetite changes, and they feed on these 
with undiminished enjoyment. 
We have scarcely another bird, the appetite of which 
is so accommodating in all respects as that of the house 
sparrow. It is, I believe, the only bird that is a volun- 
tary inhabitant with man, lives in his society, and is 
his constant attendant, following him wherever he fixes 
his residence. It becomes immediately an inhabitant 
of the new farm-house, in a lonely place or recent in- 
closure, or even in an island, will accompany him into 
the crowded city, and build and feed there in content, 
unmindful of the noise, the smoke of the furnace, or 
the steam-engine, where even the swallow and the mar- 
ten, that flock around him in the country, are scared 
by the tumult, and leave him : but the sparrow, though 
begrimed with soot, does not forsake him ; feeds on his 
food, rice, potatoes, or almost any other extraneous sub- 
stance he may find in the street ; looks to him for his 
support, and is maintained almost entirely by the in- 
dustry and providence of man. It is not known in a 
solitary and independent state. 
Though I remember no bird so peculiarly associated 
