1897-] THE HOUSE SPARROW 165 



again into the country.' . . . ' Frederick the Great had also 

 declared war against the sparrows, which did not respect 

 his favourite fruit the cherry. Naturally the sparrows could 

 not pretend to resist the conqueror of Austria, and they 

 emigrated ; but in two years not only were there no more 

 cherries, but scarcely any other sort of fruit the caterpillars 

 ate them all up ; and the great victor on so many fields of 

 battle was happy to sign peace at the cost of a few cherries 

 with the reconciliated sparrows.' 



" With regard to the destruction and consequent results 

 stated to have occurred in Maine and near Auxerre, at 

 present our very best endeavours have failed to find that 

 the statement of this having occurred rests on any authori- 

 tative basis ; and the only definite notice of the subject 

 which we have found is, that in the neighbourhood of 

 Auxerre there was an injudicious destruction of small birds 



fenerally, not only of Passer domesticus." See 'The House 

 parrow at Home and Abroad/ by Thomas G. Gentry, p. 26, 

 Philadelphia, 1878."] 



August 22, 1897. 



DEAR MR. TEGETMEIER, But there is a third story 

 though I name this with more reverence than they always 

 do the New Testament allusions translated in our version, 

 the " sparrow." I find in a copy of the " Ecclesiastical 

 Slavonic " Scripture which I have here (the authorised edition 

 of the Russian Greek Church) that the word is bird; in the 

 ordinary modern Russian it is sparrow. Unfortunately I do 

 not understand Greek but this could easily be looked up 

 in the Greek Testament. I am trying to find a scholar who 

 knows what the respective words for bird and sparrow are 

 in Aramaic, which I believe was the dialect of Palestine in 

 the time of our Lord. Mr. Rassam, the explorer, can, I 

 believe, talk a number of these Eastern dialects, but he 

 always told me that he did not enter on them grammatically 

 or technically. 



September 3, 1897. 



I see by a local paper that Miss Carrington's leaflet, 

 " Spare the Sparrow," is out, and is procurable from the 

 Hon. Sec. of the Humanitarian League, 53, Chancery Lane, 

 London, W.C., price id. I have now written to the Hon. 

 Sec., enclosing 8d., and requesting him to send six copies 

 to myself, and two to yourself. This leaflet, I think, will be 

 spirity. There are only a few lines quoted, but if the rest is 

 so discourteous and inaccurate it will not be of much 

 value. 



