54 
THE NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL. 
responsible for a great deal of unavoidable injury to the beasts of 
the field. I found two hares this morning both of which had 
lost a leg, however they could go well. I examined the stumps 
which appeared to be cut off flat by the sharp blade of the 
machine. A curious accident happened to a leveret, it jumped 
on to the platform of a self-binding machine and was tied up 
alive in a sheaf of wheat. The Humming-bird Hawk moths 
(Macroglossa Stellatarujn have been tolerably plentiful the past 
few days, but in the early part of the season I did not see one. 
Sept. 14 th 1893 Rambler. 
DRAGON-FLIES IN THE CITY. 
Mr. Nicholson records the appearance of a dragon-fly in Fleet 
Street in the September number of the “ Naturalists’ Journal.” 
Last year there was a great commotion in the newspapers about 
the same insect. Whether there were several or not I do not 
know, but 1 personally encountered one in Bolt Court at that 
time, and though I did not catch it I have little doubt that it was 
an PEschna. My theory is that the larvae inhabit the fountain 
basin in the Temple Gardens, where they would be able to subsist 
on the flies, etc., that fall into the water; or they may perhaps come 
from the larvae kept at aquarium dealers. F. P. P. 
THE HOUSE SPARROW. (Passer DonusticusJ 
This is one of our native birds which is under-going a change 
in the increase of numbers and area of distribution. This has 
created a good deal of anxiety on account of their destructive 
habits to cultivated crops of the field and garden. Where the 
climate is sufficiently genial for them the numerical increase has 
been, we may say, phenomenal. In this part, where the climate 
is rather uncongenial for them, the increase is very limited, but 
the more remarkable point is the change of habits so as to exist 
under the altered conditions : chiefly in connection with taking 
to trees for nesting and shelter necessited by the practical extinc¬ 
tion of thatched houses which formerly used to afford their nesting 
place. In fact a new variety may be said to have taken the place 
of the old who do not clamour after head quarters to any marked 
degree on the eaves of houses, like their predecessors, but are 
hardier and fall to trees in the vicinity of houses. I have not 
yet seen a case of nesting away from the vicinity of houses here, 
although I have been on the outlook for this. They are pugna¬ 
cious in their habits and ready to contend on their own limited 
area with any of the other small birds which may come under 
their immediate surroundings. The less offensive Hedge Sparrow 
seems inclined to move away from old haunts when these birds 
come upon the scene, although the former do not altogether evade 
the society of the latter, Their habits in search of food here are 
