Sparrow

(spăr'ro.) (Zool.) The name of many small birdsofthefam. Fringillidæ. The House-sparrow, Pa er domestic us or Pyrgita domestic a of the Old World, lately acclimatized in American parks and gardens, is nearly 6 ins. in length, and of a robust form. It is avery familiar bird, picking up its food from door, window, and farmyard. Its voracity is extreme, and its ince ant and monotonous note is fatiguing to the ear. Butif Buffon's estimate be true that a pair of Sparrows will destroy about 4,000 caterpillars weekly in feeding their young, there is good reason to suppose that they sufficiently repay the trivial damage they may cause either in the garden or the field. There are many American species, among which we will mention only two:- The Chipping Sparrow, Spizella social is, which is about 4 inches long, the wing nearly3; the bill black, crown continuous chestnut, the forehead black; the rump, sides of the head and neck, ashy; the under parts whitish. This is one of the most common birds. Its nest is slender, formed of gra es, and lined with hair, and placed upon an apple tree or some low bush, but never on Fig. 604.- SONG-SPARROW. the ground. The eggs are 4 or 5, greenish-blue marked with dark-brown spots. The Song-sparrow, Melospiza melodia, of the U. States (Fig. 604), is 61½ inches long, the wing over 22. It builds both on the ground and on trees. The eggs are 3 to 7, light greenish-white, speckled with dark umber, the specks larger towards the larger end. (Zool.) See FALCON IDE. (spahr'tah,) or LACEDE'MON. (Anc. Geog.) The C. of Laconia, the chief city of the Peloponnesus, and the rival of Athens in the history of ancient Greece, was situate on the right bank of the Eurotas, about 20 m. from the sea, in av alley of remarkable beauty and fertility, b. W. and E. by the ranges of the Taygetus and Parnon. According to the tradition, Lacedæmon, son of Jupiter andTaygete, married Sparta, third in descent from Lenex, and gave the name of his wife to the city which he founded, and his own name to the people and country. Menelaus, husband of Helen,and his descendants, reigned in S., which was afterwards conquered by the Dorians, and the institutions of Lycurgusmade it ana tion of profe ional soldiers, B. c. 815. The first and second Me enian Wars (743-723 and 685-668) doubled its pop. and territory. At the outbreak of the Persian war, S. was by unanimous consent entrusted with the chief command. The battles of Thermopyle and Salamis in 480, and of Platea in 479, were respectively fought under the Spartan generals Leonidas, Eurybiades, and Pausanias. A destructive earthquake occasioned a revolt of the helots and the third Me enian war(464-455). The long Peloponnesian war (431404) terminated with the conquest of Athens. The Spartans then exerted unrivalled authority, until its defeat by the The bans at Leuctra (371) and Mantinea (362), when it was stripped from the dominions which it had acquired from the Me enians, Arcadians, and Argives, and ceased to be a leading state in Greece. After a series of vici itudes, S. pa ed into the hands of the Romans, and became a portion of the Romanp. of A chai a. Its site is now occupied by two villages,Magulaand Psychiko, and by the town of New Sparta. [s. 843]