Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
SPAR'ROW. " It denotes, indefinitely, some of the sparrow-like (passerine) species, which in multitudes inhabit the Holy Land. In the East such little birds have Tree-Sparrow. (After Wood) always been sold at the merest trifle for food. Matt 10:29. The blue thrush of Palestine is peculiarly a solitary species, and in all its habits exactly meets the description of Ps 102:7. Birds of the sparrow kind often build their nests in the mosques and public buildings of the East.
The writer, during service in the English church at Nazareth, observed a house-sparrow enter through a broken pane of glass and fly to its nest, high overhead, illustrating Ps 84:3.