The Birds’ Calendar 
honored in the breach than in the observance, 
I looked neither to the right hand nor to the 
left, trusting, and not in vain, that kind fortune 
would preserve me from constabulary inter- 
ference. At its best estate it is only an indif- 
ferent singer, but it made a full display of its 
physical charms—the top of the head and large 
patches on the wings of rich yellow, with bluish 
back, jet-black throat, and a black stripe on the 
side of the face, bordered with white—a brill- 
iant creature as it fluttered hither and thither, 
either for ecstasy or for insects. 
After such daintiness what could look more 
ignoble than the dirty and detestable English 
sparrows? Imported from Europe to wage a 
certain local and vermicular warfare, in the 
estimation of competent judges the remedy has 
proved infinitely worse than the malady. Of 
more than doubtful utility, but with unparalleled 
fecundity and audacity, like some contagious 
disease they are spreading over the country, 
to the disgust of all who know their worthless, 
impudent, and quarrelsome nature. Clumsy, 
pugnacious, coarse-looking and coarser-voiced, 
ever washing and never clean, making a vulgar 
show of refinement by inveterately wiping their 
mouths—which ceases to be a virtue when it 
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