ENGLISH SPARROW. o41 
eggs are usually four, sometimes five. They are of a soiled white color, 
spotted with very dark brown, and marked with zigzag, straight, and 
wavy lines of blackish, as in the eggs of many of the Icteridz. They 
measure .85 by .65. As soon as the young are able to fly they take to 
trees, and from this time until their departure, this species is more ar- 
boreal than in the spring and early summer. 
GENUS PASSER. Brisson. 
Bill shaped much as in the Purple Finch. Wings moderate, pointed, second quill 
longest, but scarcely exceeding the tiist and third, which are equal. Tail two-thirds as 
long as the wing, slightly forked; tarsus as long as the middle toe; lateral toes equal. 
PassER DOMEsTICUS (L.) Degland and Gerbe. 
Einelish Sparrow. 
Passer domesticus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 566; Re- 
print, 1875, 6.—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 9. 
Pyrgila domestica, LANGDON, Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1, 1879, 175; Re- 
print, 9. 
Hringilla domestica, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., 1, 1766, 323. 
Pyrgita domestica, CUVIER, Reg. An., 1829, 439. 
Passer domesticus, DEGLAND and GERBE, Orn. Europ., i, 1867, 241. 
Male: above reddish brown, the back streaked with black; the crown and under 
parts brownish ash, the chin and throat black; a white wing-bar. Female lacking the 
black on chin and throat. Length, 64; wing, about 3; tail, 24. 
Introduced from Europe. Resident. Breeds. The English Sparrow 
has been introduced into most of the cities and larger towns, and many 
of the villages of the State, within the last ten years. They were at 
first supposed to be a deadly foe to insects injurious to fruit and shade 
trees, but this seems to have been an error, their only recommendation 
being that they are tolerable scavengers, but like most scavengers, they 
are dirty themselves, and make nearly as much dirt as they remove, and 
are noisy without melody or other attractive traits. They are familiar 
even to impudence, as might be expected from their having been natur- 
alized without as much as making a “‘declaration of intention.” 
When first introduced in this city they put on aristocratic airs, occu- 
pied the cornices of the best hotels, business houses and palatial resi- 
dences, and spent their leisure time only in the finest streets and parks. 
Now they are content with humbler quarters. They seem to be shunned 
by other birds, none but Cow-birds seeking their acquaintance. | 
Their nest is placed in bird-boxes, crevices about houses, and some- 
times in vines and evergreen trees. When built in holes and _ bird- 
