142 BIEDS IN LONDON 



thing for some foreign bird to escape from its 

 cage on board ship and to take refuge in the 

 trees and gardens of the Tower, but woe to the 

 escaped captive and stranger in a strange land 

 who seeks safety in such a place ! Immediately 

 on his arrival the sparrows are all up against 

 him, not to heave half a brick at him,' since 

 they are not made that way, but to hunt him 

 from place to place until they have driven him, 

 weak with fatigue and terror, into a corner 

 where they can finish him with their bludgeon 

 beaks. 



This violence towards strangers of the Tower 

 sparrow is not to be wondered at, since this 

 unpleasant disposition or habit is common to 

 many species. The prophet Jeremiah had 

 observed it when he said, ' Mine heritage is 

 unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round 

 about are against her.' To the Tower spar- 

 rows every feathered stranger is conspicuously 

 speckled, and they are against her. The wonder 

 is that they should keep up their perpetual little 

 teasing warfare against the pigeons and starlings, 

 their neighbours from time immemorial. One 

 would have imagined that so intelligent and 

 practical a bird as the sparrow, after vainly trying 



