THE HOUSE-SPARROW. 121 



THE HOUSE-SPARROW. 



The HOUSE-SPARROW (Passer domestictts ; family, Frin- 

 gillidce) is known to all in town or country. Impudent, 

 yet wary ; not easily caught or enticed, however much we 

 may tempt with the most favourite food. " Timeos Danaos 

 nee dona ferentes" they say, and yet we have seen in the 

 Tuileries Gardens in Paris a man who, by whistling, 

 brought all the sparrows round him. They perched on 

 his hat, his shoulders, his arms, his wrists, and his hands ; 

 and even the cautious wood-pigeon came to his call. What 

 innate mysterious power did that man possess ? 



W. Ralston, in his 4< Russian Folk-Lore," gives a legend 

 about the sparrow: "When the Jews were seeking for 

 Christ in the Garden, all the birds, except the sparrow, 

 tried to draw them away from His hiding-place ; only the 

 sparrow attracted them thither by his shrill chirruping ; 

 then the Lord cursed the sparrow, and forbade that men 

 should eat its flesh." 



The Bohemians have a set of charms to keep sparrows 

 from the crops. We would advise the farmers to try them : 



1. Stick upright in a field a splinter cut from a piece of 

 timber out of which a coffin has been made. 



2. Lay a bone taken from a grave on the threshold or 

 window-sill of your barn. 



3 (and this really would not be difficult). If, while 

 sowing, you put three grains of corn under your tongue, 

 wait till you have reached the end of the furrow in silence, 

 and then spit them out in the name of the d 1, no sparrow 

 will come into your field, though your neighbour's may be 

 full of them. (See Swainson's " Folk-Lore for British Birds.") 



Skelton's poem on the death of Phyllyp Sparrowe, killed 

 by his cat Gyp, written in 1508, bringing all the birds 

 together to weep for his loss, proves how great a favourite 

 the bird was at that time : 



" The cat specyally 

 That slew so cruelly 

 My lytell prety sparowe 

 That I brought up at Carowe." 



