Crown and back of the head dark bluish ash; lore, throat, and front of the neck black; above the eyes a band of uniform reddish brown, intermixed with a few small white feathers; upper feathers dark brown, edged with reddish brown; a single transverse white bar on the wing; cheeks, sides of the neck, and under parts greyish white. _Female_--head, nape, neck, and breast ash-brown; above the eye a light yellowish brown streak; rest of the plumage less bright. Length five inches and three-quarters. Eggs white, spotted and speckled with dark grey and brown.
What were the haunts of the Sparrow at the period when men dwelt in tents, and there were neither farmhouses nor villages, much less towns and cities, it were hard to say. Certain it is now that thoroughly wild Sparrows are not to be met with in districts remote from human dwellings and cultivation; they have left the hillside and forest as if by common consent, and have pitched their tents where man builds, or ploughs, or digs, and nowhere else. In the city, the seaport town, the fishing village, the hamlet, the farmhouse, nay, near the cot on the lone waste and by the roadside smithy, they are always present, varying in the amount of confidence they place in their patrons, but all depending on man to a certain extent. And not only do they court his society, but they have adopted his diet. Whatever is the staple food of a household, the Sparrows that nestle around will be right pleased to share it; bread, meat, potatoes, rice, pastry, raisins, nuts, if they could have these for the asking, they would not trouble themselves to search farther; but obliged, as they are, to provide for themselves, they must be content with humble fare; and so skilful are they as caterers, that whatever other birds may chance to die of starvation, a Sparrow is always round and plump, while not a few have paid for their voracity by their lives. Much difference of opinion exists as to whether Sparrows should be courted by man as allies, or exterminated as enemies. The best authorities on this point have come to the conclusion that their numbers must be lessened, and that the most humane way to do this is to tear down nests before the young are hatched out. The fact that great efforts are at the present time being made to introduce them into New Zealand, where the corn crops suffer great injury from the attacks of insects, which the presence of Sparrows would, it is believed, materially check, leads to the conclusion that their mission is one of utility. That Sparrows consume a very large quantity of corn in summer there can be no doubt; as soon as the grain has attained its full size, and long before it is ripe, they make descents on the standing corn, and if undisturbed will clear so effectually of their contents the ears nearest to the hedges, that this portion of the crop is sometimes scarcely worth the threshing. During harvest they transfer their attention to the sheaves, while the reapers and binders are occupied elsewhere; as gleaners they are indefatigable; they participate, too, in the joys of harvest home, for their food is then brought to their very doors. The most skilful binder leaves at least a few ears exposed at the wrong end of the sheaf, and these are searched for diligently in the rick; and the barns must be well closed indeed into which they cannot find admission. At threshings and winnowings they are constant attendants, feeding among the poultry, and snatching up the scattered grains under the formidable beak of Chanticleer himself. At seed-time their depredations are yet more serious, as they now come in not simply for a share of the produce, but undermine the very foundations of the future crop. I once had the curiosity to examine the crop of a Sparrow which had been shot as it flew up from a newly-sown field, and found no less than forty-two grains of wheat. A writer in the _Zoologist_, who professes himself a deadly enemy of the Sparrow, states that he once took 180 grains of good wheat from the crops of five birds, giving an _average_ of thirty-six for a meal. Now if Sparrows had the opportunity of feeding on grain all the year round, they would be unmitigated pests, and a war of extermination against them could not be waged too vigorously; but during the far greater portion of the year they have not the power of doing mischief, and all this time they have to find food for themselves.