TCD MS 10515 folio 83 recto
[May 10th 1916]
thronged the air overhead, uttering loud cries of resentment, and the descending, they would scatter over the desert speckling the dull sand with brilliant points of green.
At the only Arab village on our route we met that most ubiquitous of birds, The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). I do not know if this bird should be considered as indigenous or looked on as an imported species but it certainly follows in the track of man to his habitations in the desert. In doing so it has renounced its customary diet of seeds for here it has developed into an insectiverous bird. It has become a fly catches and a devourer of locusts. It is quite a usual sight to see a group of sparrows chasing a solitary insect in the air, playing the part of the fly-