HOUSE -SPARROW 



PASSERES. 



89 



FRINGILLIDjE. 



Passer domesticus (Linnaeus*). 



THE HOUSE-SPARROW. 



Passer domesticus. 



Of all our British Birds the Sparrow t is found through- 

 out the year, whether in country or town, more attached to 

 and identified with the habitations of men than any other ; 



* Fringilla domestica, Linnams, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 323 (1766). 



f This familiar bird in olden days was nicknamed, just as the Redbreast, 

 Wren, Titmouse, Daw and Pie were called Robin, Jenny, Tom, Jack and .Ma g 

 respectively. "Philip Sparrow" was a great favourite with the early English 

 poets, but for centuries past this prefix, which is said to have been purely imita- 

 tive of the bird's chirp, seems to have dropped out of use. Mr. Skcat in his 

 excellent edition of Lan gland's 'Piers the Plowman, 1 published for the Early 

 English Text Society, has shewn (part II. pp. xvii., xxi.) that two of its ancient 

 versions, one at least written soon after the year 1400, mention " Sire philip pe 

 sparwe." Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. (ed. Dyce, i. p.7>l) has an 

 elegy on the death "f a pet Sparrow ("wlnte as mylke," whom " Gyb our cat 

 hath slayne"), intituled 'The boke of Phyllyp Sparowe ' and written before the 

 end of 1508 ; while Gascoigne, who was born abort 1525 and died in l.">77, also 

 indited 'The Praise of Philip Sparrowe. ' Both the latter have the contraction 

 VOL. IT. X 



