SECOND WEEK] December 317 



threes until the bare limbs are black with them and there 

 seems not room for another bird; but still they come, each 

 new arrival diving into the mass of birds and causing a 

 local commotion. By seven o'clock there are hundreds of 

 English sparrows perching in this one tree. At daylight 

 they are off again, whirring away by scores, and in a few 

 minutes the tree is silent and empty. The same habit is 

 to be seen in many other cities and towns, for thus the 

 birds gain mutual warmth. 



Nature will do her best to diminish the number of spar- 

 rows and to regain the balance, but to do this the spar- 

 row must be brought face to face with as many dangers 

 as our wild birds, and although, owing to the sparrows' 

 fearlessness of man, this may never happen, yet at least 

 the colour protections and other former safeguards are 

 slowly being eliminated. On almost every street we may 

 see albino or partly albino birds, such as those with white 

 tails or wings. White birds exist in a wild state only 

 from some adaptation to their surroundings. A bird which 

 is white simply because its need of protection has tempo- 

 rarily ceased, would become the prey of the first stray hawk 

 which crossed its path. We cannot hope to exterminate 

 the English sparrow even by the most wholesale slaughter, 

 but if some species of small hawk or butcher bird could ever 

 become as fearless an inhabitant of our cities as these birds, 

 their reduction to reasonable numbers would be a matter 

 of only a few months. 



So dainty in plumage and hue, 



A study in gray and brown, 

 How little, how little we knew 



The pest he would prove to the town! 



