GRAY DAYS AND MERRY WAYS 



Listen to the loud, happy, discordant chatter of 

 those busy English sparrows. How self-satisfied 

 they seem! How unconscious of the opprobrium 

 that attaches itself to their very name! Their 

 harsh voices are susceptible oi great improvement, 

 it seems, however. Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller re- 

 lates an instance of a wounded English sparrow 

 who was rescued and placed in a cage in the neigh- 

 borhood of a canary, and in a short time the little 

 street arab had not only acquired the canary's 

 song, but, in successful rendering and sweetness 

 of voice, he actually surpassed his feathered model. 

 In Mr. Thompson-Seton's " Fifth Avenue Trou- 

 badour " we have another instance of an English- 

 sparrow musician. Who can tell what beneficial 

 results might follow the establishment of avian 

 St. Cecilia societies in English sparrow circles ? 



Here we come upon a group of cedar-birds. 

 In these beautifully crested, elegantly clad, high- 

 bred little creatures we have the Lord Chester- 

 fields of birds always on etiquette and never 

 guilty of a breach of good breeding nor of the 

 slightest carelessness in the matter of dress. No 

 one ever came upon them in the deshabille of 

 moulting time, for it is said that they are always 

 in full toilette. Their low, modest notes corre- 



