CHAPTER VI.
WORKERS ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
The House Sparrow.
(Passer domesticus.)
This is among birds what the street-boy is in the towns—merry, audacious, obtrusive and quarrelsome, always moving and picking up what it can. A human habitation without Sparrows is inconceivable. In the street it rummages in the tracks of the horses; in the markets, it sees when the stall-keeper is dozing, and helps itself out of her basket to anything that takes its fancy.
When the wheat ears are soft it betakes itself to the fields and fills its stomach and also feeds its young with their milky juice; when the corn is ripe he attacks it and knocks more grains out of the ears than it can possibly eat. It does the same with cherries, mulberries, and all kinds of seeds. It also breaks off young buds and the points of young shoots.
It drags the Titmice out of their nest-holes and establishes itself there. It presence is easy to recognise by the straws sticking out of the hole. The only method of preventing this is to make the entrance-hole narrower and to hang the nest-hole lower down.
It is true that when there is a great abundance of cockchafers it consumes a great quantity of these creatures; but as soon as it finds something it likes better, and is easily obtained, he leaves the destructive chafers to others. The most useful service it does is in severe snowy winters, when, in company with a large number of other Sparrows, it scours the fields and picks up the seeds of noxious weeds; besides this it feeds its young with insects. It should not be suffered to increase too much, for it does on the whole considerable mischief. The humane way of lessening its numbers, as we have before pointed out, is to pull down the nest wherever we can.
A word for our English Sparrows. E. Newman, F.Z.S., says: “A Sparrow-hawk left to himself, even by scaring the Sparrow from ripe grain, will save the wages of at least ten boys.” And the head gardener of a large garden which was protected with a network of black cotton only, said: “Nobody knows what good a Sparrow does in a garden. In fields it eats charlock, chickweed, plaintain, buttercup, knot-grass,” etc. When the hay lies in swathes in the fields it haunts them in quest of what are called “haychaffers”; craneflies, earwigs, blight, etc., are part of its prey. “They have been known,” writes Curtis of Sparrows in “Farm Insects,” “to gorge themselves with the larvæ of the May-bug till they were unable to fly.” A French writer says: “Under one Sparrow’s nest the rejected wing-cases of cockchafers were picked up; they numbered over 1,400. Thus one pair had destroyed more than 700 insects to feed one brood.” Much of the harm attributed to Sparrows is the work of a small Weevil, which is very destructive to many kitchen-garden plants. Mr. Joseph Nunn of Royston, a farmer, writing of the Sparrow during 1897, says that Sparrows do not eat more corn from the stacks than other Finches or the Buntings, and that a farmer must learn how to protect his property the same as any other tradesman.
As to its colour, we may say that its crown is grey with chestnut stripes, throat black—that is, the male bird. The throat of the female is whitish, and there are whitish lines on the head and over the eyes. Beak strong, wedge-shaped, pointed. The whole bird suggests strength. It lays five or six eggs, which are white, thickly speckled with dark marks. The nest is composed of straw, wood, tow, hair and feathers carelessly put together, still it is soft and warm. This bird breeds twice a year, sometimes three times.
The Tree Sparrow.
(Passer Montanus.)
The habits of this Sparrow vary from those of the house species in that it dwells among fields and foothills where wood and thicket alternate. It also frequents gardens, and behaves very audaciously. In hollow places in old trees it is sure to be met with. It is a bold builder, and will place its nest with us in Hungary under the Eagle’s eyrie, or the Stork’s nest. It may generally be said to be a hole-nester, and a much greater insect eater than its congener the House Sparrow.