150 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



caterpillar which destroyed the leaves and buds of the elms 

 and others ; and at the south end the elm trees were eaten 

 every June by swarms of canker-worms. Both these pests 

 have been pretty nearly exterminated. But for the 

 sparrow, however, they would return. I believe the wages 

 of all my men would not compensate Boston for the loss of 

 the sparrow." This, it must be observed, is the sparrow in 

 America. In England we are told he is incorrigibly 

 harmful as well as impertinent. For myself I take the harm 

 with a sprinkling of salt ; and being myself a cockney born, 

 I revel in his impertinence. 



A neat well-set-up dapper little fellow too, this graduated 

 master of the art of impudence. What ? How say you ? 

 Dull and uniform brown ! Not a bit of it. You'll be saying 

 next that the cock starling is dressed in simple sombre 

 black ! Or, perhaps, you are acquainted only with London 

 sparrows, who in compliment to city clerks and lawyers 

 have rather a snuffy appearance. Come with me to the 

 country and look at that cheeky cock-sparrow in the farm- 

 yard who has been bullying the great dull-witted cart- 

 horse, and now tells him, chirpily, that he'll overlook it this 

 once, but that such stupidity is exceedingly annoying. Do 

 you call his dress dull uniform brown ? Nay, but look at 

 his cap of ashen grey, his rich brown coat streaked with 

 black or deeper brown, his chestnut throat and breast, his 

 whitish grey cheeks and waistcoat, his wings barred with 

 white, his perky tail. Of course I do not claim for Master 

 Impertinence a foremost place for beauty in the cousinhood 

 of finches. But I do think a well-groomed little cock- 

 sparrow, if he have not been bathing himself too assiduously 

 in the cream-coloured dust of a limestone road, makes a 

 very presentable appearance to an eye that is contented 

 with delicate combinations and pencillings of black and 

 grey, chestnut and brown. 



