spiteful, especially during the season for choosing a mate, when most pertinacious and furious battles are of constant occurrence--the enraged combatants falling upon each other, biting, struggling, and screaming in a manner that is perfectly astounding to a spectator of this miniature warfare; indeed, it seems as if these encounters took place simply to gratify the pugnacious propensities of the irritable little creatures. All the members of this family bathe frequently, paddling about when in the water until their coats are quite saturated, and subsequently preen their feathers with the greatest care. Corn and insects form their principal food, their preference for the former, perhaps, accounting for the pertinacity with which they frequent the dwellings of men. During the summer they industriously pursue various kinds of insects, with which they feed their young. They are fond of fruit, and often attack our orchards, doing an incalculable amount of injury. It is believed that these birds produce many broods in the year. The nest, which is placed in a hole or upon the branch of a tree, consists only of a heap of scraps, thrown inartistically together without arrangement or care, except that the softest materials should line the interior. Sparrows are totally unfitted for life in a cage. THE COMMON SPARROW. The COMMON or HOUSE SPARROW (_Passer domesticus_) is well known to all our readers. The mantle of the male bird is brown, striped with black, the top of the head blueish grey, edged at its sides with deep chestnut. The wings are marked with two bands, one white, the other of a rusty yellow colour, and extremely narrow; the cheeks are greyish white, the front of the neck black, and the under part of the body light grey. The female is of a light brownish grey upon the head, whilst over the eyes runs a pale yellow line; the back is light brown, streaked with black; the whole of the lower part of the body greyish white; the young resemble the mother until the first moulting season. The beak is black in summer and grey in winter, the feet horn-grey, and the eyes brown. Many varieties of plumage occasionally occur, some individuals being white, or yellowish white, and some nearly black. The male and female differ but little in size; both are about six or six and a quarter inches long, and nine to nine and a half across the wings. [Illustration: WINTER VISITORS TO THE VILLAGE.]