io MBLES OF A VOMINIS 



sparrow of the country and the sparrow of the town ; 

 between the dingy bird that nestles in the niches of St. 

 Paul's and the smart cousin roosting in the fragrant 

 cleanness of the hayrick. The city sparrow, clad in a 

 dull garb suggestive of his smoky haunts, is a bold- 

 hearted bird, in his element amid the turmoil of the 

 street, cool and collected among the roar of traffic, 

 lingering under the very feet of the horses. He makes 

 under smoky eaves a grimy nest, and finds among 

 blackened roofs a field with which his colour harmonises 

 well. His notes are sharp and scurrilous, savouring of 

 profanity and the city arab. 



A very different figure is the country cousin, who, 

 with plumage all untarnished, swings on the laburnum 

 bough, or, perched on the brown thatch of the barn, 

 gossips drowsily with his neighbours in the summer 

 twilight. Plain to see is the patch of black upon his 

 throat ; unsullied the white bar across his wing. Un- 

 dimmed with dust is the grey tinge of his crown ; un- 

 soiled with soot the chestnut of his glossy feathers. 



But, whether of the town or country, the sparrow is a 

 sparrow still. Perhaps there is no bird with a character 

 so strongly marked. No bird more resolutely holds its 

 own. Perhaps there is none who works with more un- 

 tiring zeal; no bird certainly gets less credit for his 

 pains. His good deeds are prompted, it is true, less by 

 love than by necessity. In the struggle for existence 

 he gets his dinner where he can, and it is all the same 

 to him if his food is found among the insects that 

 attack the crop, or among the ripening grain itself; if 



