BIRDS ABOUT TOWNS 163 



stance, it is the ordinary sparrow in Japan, 

 and if you look at the sparrows in any Japanese 

 drawing, you will see that they differ from the 

 sparrows you usually see in just the points 

 that I have mentioned. 



Then there is a bird which is called a 

 sparrow, but not very closely related to the 

 real sparrows, although, like them, it is a 

 finch the pretty lavender - coloured, pink- 

 billed Java sparrow. This, I found, was the 

 common sparrow of the town of Zanzibar 

 when I was there nearly twenty years ago, 

 and very pretty these birds looked flying 

 about the houses ; I never saw them come 

 down into the streets for food, as our 

 sparrows do, so I suppose they flew out into 

 the country for it. The Java sparrow looks 

 a heavy, clumsy bird in a cage, but he flies 

 very fast and straight, and is a much better 

 traveller than one would think. Of course in 

 Zanzibar he is not a native bird, his real home 

 being in Java, according to his name, but he 

 has been introduced into many other countries 

 in the East. In India I once heard of a case 

 which shows very well how this might happen 

 almost accidentally ; in an aviary in Bombay, 



