HEDGE-SPARROW 55 



But do you run up and attempt to catch her and you will 

 see she will at once gather herself up and fly nimbly off to 

 the protecting hedgerow, awaiting your departure from her 

 district. 



At this season too the cock shows he is not averse from 

 joining other sparrows in robbery. You will find this " quiet " 

 simple little soul pecking furiously at your young onion-beds 

 or some other sweet seedlings, or he will be playing havoc 

 with your budding bushes and trees ; and if you could accuse 

 him green-billed, you are sure that, like the " simple " girl, 

 he would plead " it was such a little one," or " only the first 

 time." 



And when the equinoxes fill the North Sea with herring 

 fleets, these birds spread over the country-side, living through 

 the winter by the fenman's or farmer's door, or else they 

 feed with the rooks, starlings, and larks and titlarks on the 

 melting patches of snow in the bleak landscape. 



And so this insignificant little bird lives its life, never 

 doing anything to be " spoken on," adding no beauty of 

 song or bright patch of colour to the landscape, but leading 

 a "quiet life," practising the arts of deceit when necessary, 

 stealing with a deprecatory air, and passing through life 

 as do a host of " homely " and petty-minded people — as 

 "respectable." 



