♦294 
HOUSE SPARROW. 
blended together in a marked and beautiful assem- 
blage. The Common Sparrow is so frequent every- 
where, as scarcely to require any description of its 
dress. Suffice therefore to say, that it is subject 
to variation with white or cream colour either in 
whole or in part ; while the vicinity of towns, (in 
addition to the dirt or smoke which obscures 
their plumage,) seems also to affect the natural 
depth of the tints. The whole of our large cities 
and towns abound with Sparrows ; and the exten- 
sive squares and gardens, or the grass plot of a 
few yards square, with some bush in the centre, 
equally supply them with a substitute for the 
country. Here they breed under the eaves of 
houses, in waterspouts or any other hole, and in 
the open squares, in the hollow trees or bushes ; 
and here they also keep up their incessant chatter, 
varied by the more mixed notes of a general 
battle. Our rural villages and farm steadings 
also are each supplied with their flock or 
flocks of Sparrows, assembling in the adja- 
cent hedges, or some favourite bush, and often, 
when the grain or seeds of the gardens are 
ripe, committing severe depredations, which 
causes a price to be set on their head, and their 
flocks to be easily thinned from the close manner 
in which they congregate. In the country, their 
breeding places are still more varied than in 
towns, and among the most favourite, where the 
houses are covered with thatch or turf, is under 
the eaves, often in long holes, to the end of 
which the arm can scarcely reach, and where 
