SPARROW .- — Passer domesticus , 
The Sparrow is remarkable for the manner in which it follows mankind, and 
• attaches itself to houses and cities. 
When in the country, the Sparrow feeds almost wholly on insects and grain, 
the former being procured in the spring and early summer, and the latter in 
autumn and winter. As these birds assemble in large flocks, and are always very 
plentiful, they devour great quantities of grain, and are consequently much per- 
secuted by the farmer, and their numbers thinned by guns, traps, nets, and all 
kinds of devices. Yet their services in insect-killing are so great as to render 
them most useful birds to the agriculturist. A single pair of these birds have 
been watched during a whole day, and were seen to convey to their young no 
less than forty grubs per hour, making an average exceeding three thousand 
in the course of the week. In every case where the Sparrows have been extir- 
pated, there has been a proportional decrease in the crops from the ravages of 
insects. 
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