A WISE DISPENSATION. 213 



their minds, they treat him as kindly as before. In one instance, 

 when the House Sparrow had undergone a long persecution, they 

 beat a retreat, and built their nests in some adjoining trees a 

 proof that, when compelled by danger, they could change their 

 habits, and, like other birds, build among the branches, instead 

 of under the thatch or beneath the eaves. 



Knapp's remarks upon the habits of this very common 

 and familiar bird are so evidently the result of close and 

 acute observation, that we are tempted to give them 

 entire : 



We have no bird, I believe, more generally known, thought of, or 

 mentioned with greater indifference, perhaps contempt, than the 

 common Sparrow, * that sitteth alone on the house-top;' yet it is an 

 animal that nature seems to have endowed with peculiar character- 

 istics, having ordained for it a very marked provision, manifested in 

 its increase and maintenance, notwithstanding the hostile attacks to 

 which it is exposed. A dispensation that exists throughout creation 

 is brought more immediately to our notice by the domestic habits of 

 this bird. The natural tendency that the Sparrow has to increase, 

 will often enable one pair of birds to bring up fourteen or more 

 young ones in the season. They build in places of perfect security 

 from the plunder of larger birds and vermin. Their art and 

 ingenuity in commonly attaching their nests beneath that of the 

 rook, high in the elm, a bird whose habits are perfectly dissimilar, 

 and with which they have no association whatever, making use of 

 their structure only for a defence to which no other bird resorts, 

 manifest their anxiety and contrivance for the safety of their 

 broods. With peculiar perseverance and boldness, they forage and 

 provide for themselves and their offspring; will filch grain from the 

 trough of the pig, or contend for its food with the gigantic turkey; 

 and, if scared away, their fears are those of a moment, as they 

 quickly return to their plunder; and they roost protected from all 

 the injuries of weather. These circumstances tend greatly to 

 increase the race, and in some instances their numbers in our corn- 

 fields towards autumn are prodigious; and did not events counteract 

 the increase of this army of plunderers, the larger portion of our 

 bread-corn would be consumed by them. But their reduction is as 

 rapidly accomplished as their increase, their love of association 

 bringing upon them a destruction which a contrary habit would not 

 tempt. They roost in troops in our ricks, in the ivy on the wall, 

 &c., and are captured by the net; they cluster on the bush, or 

 crowd on the chaff by the barn-door, and are shot by dozens at a 

 time : or will rush in numbers, one following another, into the trap. 

 These and various other engines of destruction so reduce them in the 

 winter season, that the swarms of autumn gradually diminish, till 



