The whole length is five inches and five-eighths; that
of the wing about two inches and three-quarters : the second
primary is equal to the fifth, and longer than the sixth; the
third is rather longer than the fourth, and is the longest in
the wing; the fourth rather longer than the fifth.
The female is only five inches and three-eighths in length;
but her plumage resembles that of the male, except that its
colours are not quite so bright.
The young birds in their nestling-feathers have the top of
the head and least upper wing-coverts dull orange-brown; in
other respects, even to the black throat and the white sides
of the neck, they much resemble the adults; but the colours
are everywhere paler and more dull.
The vignette below represents the breast-bones of the
Brambling and the House-Sparrow.
PASSE RES. FRINGILLIBAE.
P a s s e r d om e s t ic u s (Linnaeus*).
THE HOUSE-SPARROW.
Passer domesticus.
Op all our British Birds the Sparrow t is found throughout
the year, whether in country or town, more attached to
and identified with the habitations of men than any other ;
* Fringilla domestica, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 323 (1766).
f This familiar bird in olden days was nicknamed, just as the Redbreast,
Wren, Titmouse, Daw and Pie were called Robin, Jenny, Tom, Jack and Mag
respectively. “ Philip Sparrow” was a great favourite with the early English
poets, but for centuries past this prefix, which is said to have been purely imitative
of the bird’s chirp, seems to have dropped out of use. Mr. Skeat in his
excellent edition of Langland’S ‘Piers the Plowman,’ published for the Early
English Text Society, has shewn (part II. pp. xvii., xxi.) that two of its ancient
versions, one at least written soon after the year 1400, mention “ Sire philip J>e
sparwe.” Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. (ed. Dyce, i. p. 51) has an
elegy on the death of a pet Sparrow (“ whyte as mylke,” whom “ Gyb our cat
hath slayne” ), intituled ‘ The boke of Phyllyp Sparowe ’ and written before the
end of 1508 ; while Gascoigne, who was born about 1525 and died in 1577, also
indited ‘ The Praise of Philip Sparrowe.’ Both the latter have the contraction
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