COCK ROBIN'S MURDERER 



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O bird, except possibly the Indian crow, 

 has been the object of so much vilification 

 as the sparrow : 



" The spink and the sparrow 

 Are the devil's bow and arrow." 



So runs the country adage, and the farmers act up to 

 its sentiments. They unite to form " sparrow clubs." 

 These benevolent institutions are founded with the pious 

 object of destroying as many as possible of the arrows 

 of the Prince of Darkness. But the hatred of the 

 sparrow is by no means confined to the yokel. 



Respectable ornithologists vie with one another in 

 inventing hard names for the pushing little bird. Thus 

 Lord Lilford called him Passer impudicus ; Tristram 

 dubs him Passer papisticus. Even more scathing is 

 Irby's name for him — Passer damnabilis. These de- 

 nominations, however, all pale into insignificance before 

 the expressive epithet of the farm labourer, which may 

 be Latinized into Passer sanguineus ! 



" The sparrow," writes Masius, " is a vulgar bird — a 

 proletarian, with all the cunning and vices of his class. 

 Slight and persecution are his inheritance. Even in the 

 Bible it is said, ' Are not two sparrows sold for a 



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