PERCHING BIRDS. 197 



The impudence of London sparrows is prover- 

 bial ; and they have a good excuse for it, as they 

 must use their wits or die of hunger. An amusing 

 instance is given in " The Zoologist, for 1851," of a 

 cockney sparrow which had for three or four 

 years maintained a close friendship with the 

 keeper of an " early breakfast shop," composed of 

 a long flat wheelbarrow, with a movable awning, 

 which was daily established at early dawn at a 

 corner of Tavistock-square, immediately opposite 

 a solitary plane-tree the favourite resort of my- 

 riads of house-sparrows. Among this host was 

 one female sparrow, between whom and the old 

 man who sold the bread and butter and coffee at 

 this humble caravan, the most friendly and inti- 

 mate relations existed. They every morning break- 

 fasted together ; the bird making herself completely 

 at home, and seeming to believe the whole estab- 

 lishment was maintained for her particular benefit. 

 She had three broods every season, and as soon 

 as her young ones needed food she made larger 

 claims on the good man's stores. 



Every morning came the wheelbarrow, and 

 every morning the sparrow fed herself and brood ; 

 and if the old man, in the dark wintry mornings, 

 were a few minutes behind time, she would go 

 some way to meet him, and with a chirp, at meet- 

 ing settle either on or beneath the awning, and 



