THE SPARROW TRIBE 



LIKE the poor, the sparrows are always 

 with us. There is not a day in the year 

 when you cannot find at least one member of 

 the great tribe which comprises one-seventh 

 of all our birds — ^by far the largest North Amer- 

 ican family. What is the secret of their 

 triumphant numbers? 



Many members of the hardy, prolific clan, 

 wearing dull brown and gray-streaked feathers, 

 in perfect colour harmony with the grassy, bushy 

 places or dusty roadsides where they live, are 

 usually overlooked by Enemies in search of a 

 dinner. Undoubtedly their protective colouring 

 has much to do with their increase. They 

 are small birds mostly, not one so large as a 

 robin. 



Sparrows being med eaters chiefly, although 

 none of the tribe, rfefuses insect meat in season, 

 and all give it to their nestlings, there is never 

 a time when they cannot find food, even at the 

 frozen North where some weedy stalks project 

 above the snow. They are not fastidious. 

 Fussy birds, like fussy people, have a hard time 

 in this world ; but the whole sparrow tribe, with 

 few exceptions, make the best of things as they 



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