182 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

voracious, and Buffon says they will destroy about 4000
caterpillars weekly, in feeding their young, which certainly
well repays the slight damage they may do to the field and
garden from their love for grain and seeds.

There is a pretty anecdote related in the ‘Zoological
Journal,’ respecting these somewhat despised little birds,
which evinces much fondness for their offspring, and a
change of habit to suit a particular circumstance, which
would be very remarkable were it not of such frequent oc-
currence. “ A few years since, a pair of sparrows which had
built in a thatched roof of a house at Poole, were observed
to continue their regular visits to the nest long after the time
when the young birds take flight. This unusual circum-
stance continued throughout the year, and in the winter, a
gentleman who had all along observed them, determined on
investigating the cause. He therefore mounted a ladder,
and found one of the young ones detained a prisoner, by
means of a piece of string or worsted, which formed part of
the nest, having become accidentally twisted round its leg.
Being thus incapacitated for procuring its own sustenance,
it had been fed by the continued exertions of its parents.”

Mr. Waterton thus describes the Solitary Sparrow (Passer
solitarius) :—“ The bird to which David compares himself,