THE SPARROW'S HOLIDAY 219 



know all about this autumn visit of the city 

 sparrows to the country. All the year round the 

 country population of sparrows is not very great. 

 In an average rural square mile there are more 

 sparrows than chaffinches, than buntings, than 

 greenfinches, than larks, blackbirds, or thrushes. 

 But there are not more sparrows than all of these 

 put together. Just when the corn is ripening, 

 however, there is a sudden and prodigious acces- 

 sion to the sparrow flocks, which have hitherto 

 found the roads and farmyards their chief hunting- 

 grounds, and the little brown-grey scallywags out- 

 number all other small birds put together. And 

 the chance 'deposits of semi -digested grain on the 

 highway no longer interest them. They take to 

 the standing corn, and the sight of them in full 

 operation is one to fill the agricultural heart with 

 rage. 



Here is a wheat -field with a line of ash-trees 

 around its edges. The heads are full and turning 

 yellow. Passing along on a bicycle it is wonder- 

 ful how generally the birds have learnt to look 

 upon a man on a bicycle as safe you notice per- 

 haps a dozen sparrows hanging on to the grain. 

 Ride on and they will take no notice of you, but 

 confine their attention to the business in hand, 

 which is the consumption of untaxed corn. But 



dismount at the nearest point to them, and I 



A dozen sparrows, said you? A couple of hundreds 

 or more instantly rise from the corn, with'a unani- 

 mous chirping clamour and a noise which would 

 not discredit a covey of grouse. They make for 

 a tree at a safe distance, and converse volubly 



