March 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



163 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE INDIAN SPARROW. 



(communicated.) 



"OU at liome, who are accustomed to dingi- 

 ness, shyness, and not overpowering 

 twittering in your Passer doDiesticus, 

 would be mightily astonished and amused 

 at our sprightly and perky P. Indicus, 

 which is far ahead of your bird in its 

 fnmiliar vulgarity and pugnacity. 

 Jerdon (" Birds of ludiar" Vol. II., J)^ 368) tells as 

 that "the common sparrow of India differs very little 

 from that of Europe. It diii'ers chiefly from F. domesticiis 

 in the greater purity of its colours, and in the female 

 being somewhat paler. It is smaller, too, than its 

 European congener." 



I am not certain myself of the difference in size, but of 

 that in plumage there is hardly a doubt, simply because 

 our sparrow has not smoke and fog to contend with like 

 its cockney brother, and i.s, therefore, always clem, and 

 cxn make the most of its plumage, sombre though it be. 



In oue respect, the English cannot approach the Indian 

 sparrow — and that, is in its domesticity. The former, 

 more or less, lives on man, but the latter not only lives on 

 him, but with him, and this co-partnership is at times 

 exceedingly unpleasant. 



In the hitter respect, the Indian is similar to what the 

 Jewish sparrow must have been in sacred history. They 

 must have been plentiful, for five were " sold for two 

 farthings " ; they must have frequented roof-tops, for 

 Josephus tells us that the Temple roof was protected 

 against birds by golden spikes ; and, lastly, they must 

 have nidified within the Temple precincts, for a young 

 one, fallen from its nest, may have elicited from Christ 

 the cheering words that even its accident was not without 

 Divine knowledge and permission. 



Like that sleek, black-coated ruffian, Gorvus splendens, 

 the Indian crow, the Indian sparrow lives upon man, and, 

 like the crow, is never found in desolate places. As I have 

 said, not only does he live upon man, but he lives with 

 him; man sujjplieshim alike with board and lodging, and, 

 what is more, he is very particular with whom he will 

 board and lodge. Partial to toast, he looks out especially 

 for quarters where he will get it buttered on hoth sides. 



In apparent contradiction to what I have written, he 

 is, like the church mouse, of a religious, or rather eccle- 

 siastical, turn of mind, and largely infests our churches, 

 whence, from their open architecture (for the purpose of 

 ventilation), it is impossible to exclude him. 



He scandalises our services by drowning them, with his 

 deafening chirruping and scolding — nay, he chooses the 

 most solemn moments for exhibiting his fighting ten- 

 dencies. What would a curate at home say to a pair of 

 fighting cock-sparrows suddenly alighting on the Bible 

 as he is reading a Lesson, and then and there having it 

 out, tooth [? R.P.] and nail, with enormous vituperation 

 into the bargain ? What would a devout worshipper 

 say to the same encounter commencing suddenly on his 

 bald head, and ending in his prayer-book ? Out here 

 we have to put up with their annoyances as matters of 

 course, but the severity of the struggle can be esti- 

 mated when I declare that, in some stations, these fiends 

 contest your meals with you, picking at your bread, 

 stealing your butter and rice, aud purloining your sugar. 

 Drive them away, and they will perch upon your 

 punkah ropes, awaiting a favourable moment for re-attack. 

 The pertinacity with which they stick to their building 

 sites is very remarkable and annoying ; jjerhaps they 

 have selected a spot above your stiidy table, and you can't 



dislodge them ; any day you may have a bushel of rubbish 

 dropped upon you — twigs, straw, rags, itc, and every 

 day you may pull down the nest. But in vain, hatching 

 goes on, and" then you may run the gauntlet of egg-shells, 

 rotten eggs, or fledglings dropped upon you (_vide note). 

 I have known sparrows nidify above a bed, have 

 tremendous fights on it, unmindful of its occupant, drop 

 all the above-mentioned rubbish upon it in regalar in- 

 stalments, and carry their point by having the bod 

 removed. 



Such are some of the performances of P. Indicus, and 

 I venture to affirm that they are never approached by 

 P. domesticus. Like its British brother, our Indian 

 sparrow has never been domesticated ; it resents confine- 

 ment, and resists all attempts at taming. In reality it is 

 not worth it, for it has no voice, no plumage to attract the 

 eye, and no accomplishments. — R. F. Hutchinson, M.D. 



JSfote. — I discovered in 18.58 that, during the hot 

 weather, crows, kites, mynas, sparrows, etc., left hatching 

 to the heat of the weather during the day, and sat at 

 night. In thoss days I collected birds' eggs, and, when 

 no"t at liberty to blow them, jilaced them in one of my 

 office table drawers. On two occasions I heard strange 

 noises issuing from the drawer, and, opening it, foimd, 

 on one occasion, a crow, and on another a myna fledgling. 

 I tried hard to rear both, but failed. 



Two External Galaxies. — Are not the two Magellanic 

 Clouds probably external galaxies resembling our own ? 

 If we consider the evidence this view will, I think, 

 appear highly probable. It is clear that the star clouds 

 of all orders are part of our own galaxy ; for their 

 arrangement on the star sphere corresponds far too accu- 

 rately with the arrangement of the stars to admit of any 

 other interpretation. We may feel just as sure that the 

 star clouds, which are always found where stars are not, 

 are part and parcel of the galaxy, as an insect might feel 

 that the leaves in his tree-home which ai-e always found 

 outside the boughs and at some distance from their more 

 solid parts are part and parcel of the tree to which those 

 boughs belong. But have we not just the same sort of 

 evidence that the MagelLmic Clouds, or nuleculcB, are 

 galaxies like our own, when we find that in them stars 

 of as many varied orders of real size are combined as we 

 find in the galaxy itself ? If the insect who had learned 

 to recognise the tree as containing parts so dissimilar as 

 the trunk, the boughs, the branches, the twigs, the leaves, 

 and the blossoms, were to look forth beyond the tree and 

 to see in some distant object what resembled exactly the 

 trunk, bough, branches, twigs, leaves, and blossoms of his 

 tree-home, would he not be justified in concluding that that 

 remote object was a tree like his home? Now, we have just 

 such evidence. We have in the Magellanic Clouds every- 

 one of the 'features which our galaxy would present if 

 seen from a distance. There are stars of the seventh 

 magnitude, which we may regard as being suns like 

 Sirius, Yega, Altair, and other stars of the giant order, 

 removed to many times the distance of the leading orbs 

 of our galaxy. Then there are fainter stars of all orders 

 down to those so faint that they cannot be sejiarately 

 discerned with the most powerful telescopes we have, 

 and appear only as milky nebulosity. There are star 

 clouds of all orders ; and, lastly, there are vast regions of 

 gaseous matter akin to the great Fish-mouth nebula in 

 Orion, and the great Key-hole nebula in the constellation 

 Argo. If the mthccnlcc are not external galaxies 

 resembling our own, they present at any rate all the 

 appearances which such galaxies woiild present from a 

 very distant standpoint. 



