THE SPARROW 75 



iso arise mostly on the subject of food and possession of 

 its mate. It is its eager desire for both that chiefly 

 fires it to fighting trim. During the pairing season 

 there is nothing but ' bickers ' all day through. And, 

 like an Irishman in a ' row ', it is as keen to take 

 part in any scrimmage going as to contend in a per- 

 sonal cause. A feature of a sparrow c bicker ' is the 

 suddenness with which it ends. You would think, 

 while it lasts, that the parties in it could not again 

 coexist in the same parish, let alone the same house- 

 no top ; but nothing of the sort. The community does 

 not burst up ; on the contrary, it resumes its sociality 

 as if nothing had happened, or as if it had all been 

 only a bit of diversion to relieve the monotony of life. 

 It is, however, a sociality which at best is in a state 

 of unstable equilibrium. The sudden rise of a ' row ' 

 in the sparrow-world is sometimes due to the presence 

 of an intruder, who must by universal bird-law be 

 beaten back to his own hunting area, often to the 

 vanity of a young cock- bird, who must have his 

 150 libertine presumption pecked out of him. A dead 

 body or two is no infrequent consequence of these 

 encounters, witnessing with mute eloquence to the 

 whole- heartedness of the engagement. 



The sparrow is universal. It has gone over sea 

 with the emigrant not always to his advantage. It 

 is at the antipodes. It would be strange if it had not The Spar- 

 found its way into literature. The classics teach us 

 that Aphrodite favoured the sparrow no less than she 

 did swans and doves. And some of us have heard 

 leo of Lesbia's grief for the loss of her passerine pet. 

 But a more recent poet than Catullus has at greater 

 length, if with less grace and in a way of his own 



