Description
The House Sparrow is a compact bird, typically about 16 cm (6.3 in) long, ranging from 14–18 cm (5.5–7.1 in). It has a large rounded head, and a stout bill with a culmen length of 1.1 to 1.5 cm (0.43 to 0.59 in). It has a short tail, 5.2 to 6.5 cm (2.0 to 2.6 in) long. The wing chord is 6.7 to 8.9 cm (2.6 to 3.5 in), and the tarsus is 1.6 to 2.5 cm (0.63 to 0.98 in). In weight, the House Sparrow ranges from 24–39.5 g (0.85–1.39 oz). Weight varies by sex, with females usually smaller than males. The median weight on the European continent for both sexes is about 30 g (1.1 oz), and in more southerly subspecies is around 26 grams (0.92 oz). Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season. Between and within subspecies, there is further variation based on latitude, altitude, climate, and other environmental factors, under biological principles such as Bergmann's rule.
Read more about this topic: House Sparrow
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)