WINTER NEIGHBORS. 71 



these sparrows, as they long have had to do on the 

 continent of Europe. And yet it will be hard to kill 

 the little wretches, the only Old World bird we have. 

 When I take down my gun to shoot them I shall prob- 

 ably remember that the Psalmist said, " I watch, and 

 am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top," and may- 

 be the recollection will cause me to stay my hando 

 The sparrows have the Old World hardiness and pro- 

 lificness ; they are wise and tenacious of life, and we 

 shall find it by and by no small matter to keep them 

 in check. Our native birds are much different, less 

 prolific, less shrewd, less aggressive and persistent, 

 less quick-witted and able to read the note of danger 

 or hostility, — in short, less sophisticated. Most of 

 our birds are yet essentially wild, that is, little changed 

 b}^ civilization. In winter, especially, they sweep by 

 me and around me in flocks, — the Canada sparrow, 

 the snow-bunting, the shore-lark, the pine grosbeak, 

 the red-poll, the cedar-bird, — feeding upon frozen 

 apples in the orchard, upon cedar-berries, upon ma- 

 ple-buds, and the berries of the mountain ash, and 

 the celtis, and upon the seeds of the weeds that rise 

 above the snow in the field, or upon the hay-seed 

 dropped where the cattle have been foddered in the 

 barn-yard or about the distant stack ; but 'j2t taking 

 no heed of man, in no way changing their habits so 

 as to take advantage of his presence in nature. The. 

 pine grosbeak will come in numbers upon your porch 

 to get the black drupes of the honeysuckle or the 

 woodbine, or within reach of your windows to get the 

 berries of the mountain-ash, but they know you not ; 

 they look at you as innocently and unconcernedly as 

 at a bear or moose in their native north, and jout 

 house is no more to them than a ledge of rocks. 



