Var. E—Spaniel, Can. fam. extrarius, Linn. The name of the spaniel race is derived from its supposed original country, Spain.
The sub-varieties are—a, The smaller spaniel, with a small round head, the ears and tail covered with long hair; b, King Charles’s spaniel, Can. brevipilis, Linn.; c, La Pyrame, Buff.; d, The Maltese, Bichon, Buff.; e, The lion dog, Can. leoninus, Linn.; f, the Calabrian dog; g, The hunting spaniel or cocker, which yields the setter, Can. index, Linn. Addenda—The Newfoundland dog; The Alpine spaniel.
Var. F—The water spaniel, Canis aquaticus, Linn.; chien barbat, Buff.
Sub-varieties—a, small water spaniel, petit barbet, Buff.; chien griffon, a dog between the water spaniel and the shepherd’s dog.—Blaine.
Spar, v. To fight like cocks with prelusive strokes; to box with gloves.
Spark, s. A small particle of fire, or kindled matter; anything shining; anything vivid or active.
Sparrow (Passer domesticus, Aldrovand), s. A small bird.
This well-known species weighs near seven drachms; length about six inches; the bill is dusky; irides hazel; the crown of the head ash-colour; round the eye, and between that and the bill, is black; behind the eyes, surrounding the back part of the head, bay; cheeks, white; chin and under part of the neck, black, mixed with grey; belly, dirty white; the coverts of the wings are chestnut and black mixed, with a whitish bar across them; the back a mixture of black and rufous; quills dusky, with rufous edges; tail dusky, edged with grey; legs brown. The bill of the female is lighter; behind the eye a line of white; the head and whole upper parts are brown, the under dirty white, dashed with ash-colour; no black on the chin or neck. In the country the sparrow exhibits a gloss and intermixture of colours rarely to be seen in those inhabiting large towns, which soon become of a dingy and almost uniform hue, from the accumulation of dust and smoke upon their plumage.
The sparrow is well known in every part of England; it inhabits the dwellings of the rich and the poor, taking possession of the humble thatched cottage in preference to the sumptuous palace. It is rarely seen far from the habitation of man, as it delights in the fruits of his labour; the highest cultivated parts producing the greatest quantity. It might be said of this bird, as of some species of water fowl, which remaining always within soundings, warn the mariner of his approach to land; so on the extensive and dreary mountains, not a sparrow is ever to be seen, and the sight of one bespeaks some habitation near. It makes a nest conformable to the place it chooses for incubation, whether in a hole of a wall, in thatch, or under the tiles of a house, or in a window swallow’s nest, it must conform to the size of the place; but when the nest is made in a tree, it is of large size, and covered at top, composed of hay and straw, lined warmly with feathers and fragments of thread or worsted, bits of cloth, or any refuse material of that sort, found about houses.
This accommodation of the structure of the nest to the locality where it is built, is in no instance, with which we are acquainted, more conspicuous than in the proceedings of the house-sparrow. Dr. Darwin mentions, seemingly as an extraordinary circumstance, that “in the trees before Mr. Levet’s house, at Litchfield, there are annually nests built by sparrows, a bird which usually builds under the tiles of houses or the thatch of barns;” but if he had been acquainted with the works of Bonnet, he would have learned that in Switzerland, at least, the sparrow “most usually (pour l’ordinaire) builds near the tops of trees,” while its nestling under tiles is an accidental exception. In the vicinity of London also, we venture to say that three pair of sparrows build on trees to one pair that nestle in holes; and so commonly is this noticed, that the tree-sparrow is popularly supposed to be a different species from the house-sparrow. The tree-sparrow (Passer montanus) of Yorkshire is indeed a different species, which lays pale brown eggs without spots; but the London ones, which build either on trees or in holes, have not a shade of difference.