Lie 



SO 



THE HOUSE SPARROW. 171 



Upon the Trinity Wharf, Blackwall, stands a 

 clump of small elm trees. All the Sparrows in 

 the neighbourhood resort there to roost, and these 

 being the only trees within a considerable distance, 

 their branches often support some hundreds of 

 Sparrows. In July 1863 these trees were struck 

 by lightning during a storm, after the birds had 

 retired to roost, and the following morning fifty- 

 four Sparrows were picked up at the foot of the 

 trees, the majority of them quite dead, but a few 

 just able to move. This curious circumstance 

 was related to us by an eye-witness, an officer 

 in the Trinity House, who picked up the birds, 

 and who had a pair of them stuffed to com- 

 memorate the event. We were subsequently in- 

 formed that a similar thing had occurred in some 

 trees near Poplar Church, and at the Tower of 

 London. 



If the Sparrow has many enemies, he has also 

 me friends ; and, although no songster, he has 

 been eulogised in verse by some of the older 

 English poets, several of whom have gracefully 

 sung the praises of " Philip Sparrow.'' Skelton 

 wrote an " Elegy on the death of a pet Sparrow ;" 





