BIRD-SONGS, 49 



doubt a dangerous blessing to creatures who 

 have so many enemies, and we can readily be- 

 lieve that they have found it safer to be up 

 where they can look about them while thus 

 publishing their whereabouts. 



A very interesting exception to this rule is 

 the savanna sparrow, who sings habitually from 

 the ground. But even he shares the common 

 feeling, and stretches himself to his full height 

 with an earnestness which is almost laugh- 

 able, in view of the result ; for his notes are 

 hardly louder than a cricket's chirp. Probably 

 he has fallen into this lowly habit from living 

 in meadows and salt marshes, where bushes 

 and trees are not readily to be come at ; and 

 it is worth noticing that, in the case of the 

 skylark and the white-winged blackbird, the 

 same conditions have led to a result precisely 

 opposite. The sparrow, we may presume, was 

 originally of a humble disposition, and when 

 nothing better offered itself for a singing-perch 

 easily grew accustomed to standing upon a 

 stone or a little lump of earth ; and this prac- 

 tice, long persisted in, naturally had the effect 

 to lessen the loudness of his voice. The sky- 

 lark, on the other hand, when he did not read- 

 ily find a tree-top, said to himself, "Never 

 mind ! I have a pair of wings." And so the 

 lark is famous, while the sparrow remains un- 



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