90 FRINGILLID^. 



and such is the confident familiarity obtained by long inter- 

 course, that from the thatched roof of the peasant's cottage 

 to the sculptured column of the prince's palace, all buildings 

 are alike subject to its intrusion. Everywhere bold, active, 

 vigilant and assuming, there is yet this difference observable, 

 the bird that is reared in the smoky city affords but a poor 

 example of the colours ornamenting that which is seen in 

 the countryman's garden, or at the farmer's barn-door. 



Our Sparrow pairs early in the year, and being one of the 

 most prolific of birds, great animosity and numerous contests 

 for choice or possession occur at this season. There are few 

 who have not witnessed in spring the scuffle and confusion 

 of a Sparrow-fight, when five or six cocks may be seen 

 engaged in indiscriminately attacking, buffetting, biting and 

 scrambling over each other, with all the chatter and fury of 

 excited rage ; but the matter in dispute being adjusted, each 

 retires from the contest to attend to his mate and the more 

 important duties of the season. Their nests are placed 

 under the eaves of tiled or thatched roofs, in holes of walls, in 

 the spouts of water-pipes, or in any crevice that will afford 

 sufficient space and seeming security. But while availing 

 itself of all these and several more sorts of artificial accommo- 

 dation, the Sparrow often, and especially as summer draws 

 on, builds for itself a nest in the branches of tall trees of 

 almost any kind*, or among ivy and other climbing plants, 

 seldom, however, choosing a spot that is far from an inha- 

 bited house. In such cases — and they must be accounted its 

 natural mode of nidification — the structure is very large, 

 more than a yard in circumference, and covered with a dome. 



of the name to " Phip ", and the last applies it throughout to a female. Shake- 

 spear (King John, i. 1) makes Gurney answer the younger Faulconbriilge "Good 

 leave, good Philip " ; to which the latter rejoins " Philip ? sparrow ! " ; and Sir 

 Philip Sidney (Astrophel, s. S3) has a sonnet to a Sparrow, beginning "Good 

 brother Philip", and ending "Leave that Sir Phip, lest offe your necke be 

 wroong." The expression was also known in Britauny and is duly noted in 

 Le Gonidec's Breton Dictionary (p. 316). See further Nares's 'Glossary' 

 (pp. 374, 375) and Mr. Harting's 'Ornithology of Shakespeare' (p. 14.5). 



* Even the " Puzzle-monkey " (Araucaria imbricata) from the Chilian Andes, 

 now so generally gi-own in our gardens and pleasure-grounds, is resorted to for 

 this purpose. 



