78 THE SPARROW 



Increase The tree-sparrow, however, is a true sparrow, and, 230 

 ^parroiv 6 ' Chough smaller and lighter than the house-sparrow, 

 may easily pass for one ; and indeed it occasionally 

 mates with the house-sparrow. It is a migrant, 

 coming in numbers on a north-east wind in October ; 

 but is not so rare in summer as it, even recently, used 

 to be. 



NOTES 



LINE 13. sovereign price. High reputation or value, the 

 goose for its flesh, the egret for its plumes, and the canary for 

 its song. Cp. * Evermore he hadde a sovereyn prys ' said of 

 Chaucer's Knight in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. 



15. Sancho Panza. A character in the romance of Don 

 Quixote, attendant on the Don; distinguished for his practi- 

 cality. 



27. avian evolution. Bird development out of lower forms 

 of life. 



28. Dugald Dalgetty. A character in Scott's Legend of Mont- 

 rose, very capable of looking after himself in all circumstances. 



47. conveys. Steals. * Convey the wise it call ' says Pistol in 

 King Henry IV. 



69. Lammermuir. A range of pastoral hills in the south of 

 East Lothian. 



75. Lares and Penates. Roman household gods. 



158. Aphrodite. Venus ; sprung from the foam ('aphros) of 

 the sea. 



161. a more recent poet. John Skelton (1460 9-1529), author of 

 ' The Death of Philip Sparrow ', a sprightly poem of almost 1,400 

 lines, in which a young girl amuses her grief for the death of 

 a pet sparrow by a thousand fancies and fond reminiscences. 



161. Catullus. One of the best Roman lyric poets ; born 

 c. 84 B.C., died young probably when he was about thirty. 

 Lesbia was his poetical name for the lady with whom for a 

 time he was passionately in love. 



163. Burns'spet yowe. Yowe = ewe. The poems referred to 

 are entitled ' The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie ' 

 (Mary), and ' Poor Mailie's Elegy ' : in these verses humour and 

 pathos are combined in nearly equal degree, humour prevailing. 



