In autumn and winter the hawfinches feed on seeds of various kinds--hornbeam, beech, yew, and hawthorn. The kernels only of the haws are eaten; and, in like manner, cherries and other fruits are robbed for the sake of the kernel, the hard stones being split open with the powerful beak. House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus. Lores black; a narrow white streak over each eye; crown, nape, and lower back ash-grey; region of the ear-coverts chestnut; back chestnut-brown streaked with black; wings brown, with white bar on the middle coverts; tail dull brown; throat and breast black; cheeks and sides of neck white; belly dull white. Length, six inches. _Female_: without the black on the throat, and upper parts striated dusky brown. * * * * * More, far more, has been written about the sparrow than about any other bird, but as it is not advisable here to enter into the controversy on the subject of the injury he inflicts, or is believed by many to inflict, on the farmer and gardener, a very brief account of its habits will suffice. They are almost better known to most persons than the habits of the domestic fowl, owing to the universality of this little bird, to its excessive abundance in towns as well as in rural districts, and to its attachment to human habitations. For his excessive predominance there are several causes. He is exceedingly hardy, and more adaptive than other species; his adaptiveness makes it possible for him to exist and thrive in great smoky towns like London. He is sagacious beyond most species, and although living so constantly with or near to man, he never loses his suspicious habit, and of all birds is the most difficult to be trapped. He is very prolific: as soon as the weather becomes mild, at the end of February or in March, he begins to breed, and brood after brood is reared until September, or even till November if the weather proves favourable. He also possesses an advantage in his habit of breeding in holes in houses, where his eggs and young are much safer than in trees and hedges. There is a curious diversity in his nesting habits: he generally prefers a hole in a wall, or some safe, convenient cavity, and will make vigorous war on and eject other species, like the house-martin, from their nests and nesting-holes; but when such receptacles are not sufficiently numerous, or it appears safe to do so, he builds in trees, making a large, conspicuous, oval, domed nest of straw, mixed with strings, rags, and other materials, and thickly lined inside with feathers. Five to six eggs are laid, of a pale bluish white ground-colour, spotted, blotched, or suffused with grey and dusky brown. The young are fed on caterpillars; and the adults also are partly insectivorous during the summer months, but in the autumn and winter grain, seeds, and buds are chiefly eaten. Tree-Sparrow.