me aS 
BIRD-SONGS. 49 
doubt a dangerous blessing to creatures who 
have so many enemies, and we can readily be- 
lieve that they have found it safer to be up 
where they can look about them while thus 
publishing their whereabouts. 
A very interesting exception to this rule is 
the savanna sparrow, who sings habitually from 
the ground. But even he shares the common 
feeling, and stretches himself to his full height 
with an earnestness which is almost laugh- 
able, in view of the result; for his notes are 
hardly louder than a cricket’s chirp. Probably 
he has fallen into this lowly habit from living 
in meadows and salt marshes, where bushes 
and trees are not readily to be come at; and 
it is worth noticing that, in the case of the 
skylark and the white-winged blackbird, the 
same conditions have led to a result precisely 
opposite. The sparrow, we may presume, was 
originally of a humble disposition, and when 
nothing better offered itself for a singing-perch 
easily grew accustomed to standing upon a 
stone or a little lump of earth; and this prac- 
tice, long persisted in, naturally had the effect 
to lessen the loudness of his voice. The sky- 
lark, on the other hand, when he did not read- 
ily find a tree-top, said to himself, “ Never 
mind! I have a pair of wings.” And so the 
lark is famous, while the sparrow remains un- 
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