232 PERSONALITY IN BIRDS 



He has foreign relatives no farther off than the 

 continent of Europe, but they do not come here. 

 And so he remains alone, as a species, and as a bird. 

 He never associates with other birds, and if he 

 strays among them, is seen to be following his own 

 course, and will wander out again as if they were not 

 there. Meek and inoffensive in all his ways, he 

 makes no enemies ; solitary in his habits, he makes 

 no friends. He has the confidence of humility, and 

 exhibits a true trustfulness toward man, a trustfulness 

 that may be instructively contrasted with the boldness 

 of the Robin, often miscalled trustfulness. One may 

 say of the Hedge-sparrow that it is, as a bird, of 

 limited intelligence and of no great depth of feeling. 

 The resulting simplicity of character makes it one 

 of the most clearly defined personalities among birds ; 

 and the fact, rare enough in nature, that it rests 

 mainly upon self-suppression, as distinguished from 

 the self-assertion necessarily so common in the 

 struggle for existence, makes it one of the most 

 interesting. Of man it has been said : " The meek 

 shall inherit the earth." The Hedge-sparrow, 

 unoffended because unoffending, gives the saying 

 proof. 



There can be no natural termination to an 

 examination like the present unless by exhaustion of 

 the list of birds. It will, perhaps, suffice to mention 

 the Wheatear, the Whinchat and Stonechat as the 

 next natural group of allied personalities, leading on 

 to the Throstle and Redwing, Missel-thrush and 

 Fieldfare, Blackbird and Ring-ousel, after which we 

 should feel that we had come to one of those full 

 stops that keep checking one in any attempt at 



