72 THE SPARROW 



Arctic to the Equatorial circle. Where man goes it 

 can go; goes uninvited, thieves and thrives, and 

 multiplies. Any kind and quality of food will main- 

 tain it. Nothing digestible by living organism comes 

 Omnivor- amiss to its accommodating gizzard. Green seeds 

 ousness. anc j T ^ Q g ra ins, cooked crust or crumb, live crawler 

 or insect, tissue of flesh or vegetable, raw or roasted, 

 and in whatever degree of freshness or decay they 

 only give agreeable variety to its menu, and minister 40 

 to its all-round omnivorousness. Man is its servant 

 And Me- and provider. It is not his dependent. It has no 

 lce ' love for him, shows him no confidence, no gratitude ; 

 it does not entreat, but demands ; does not beg, but 

 takes. It steals or robs, making no secret of its 

 practice or its intentions. Everything of his which 

 it ' conveys ', it conveys thef tuously. Mark the delight 

 with which it 



steals from the barn a straw! 



It eats his sown fields behind the sower, and his so 

 waving crops before the reaper; pilfers from his 

 barn, and shares their dole with his poultry; nor 

 only is a pensioner upon his bounty, but battens upon 

 his parsimony by abstracting a livelihood from his 

 refuse, and finds a shelter from hawks and owls in 

 his neighbourhood, and a habitation under his very 

 eaves. For it is his chimney's smoke, and his tiles 

 and spouts that it utilizes. His means are diverted 

 Its to its ends. It has a knack of turning everything 



ubiquity. ne builds or grows to its own use. Under these eo 

 happy conditions of circumstance and temperament 

 it has necessarily grown common and become vulgar. 

 No other bird thrush or merle, pigeon or swallow 



