LESSONS FROM AN ENGLISH SPARROW 



MANY people say they love Nature, but as 

 they have little time to go into the country 

 they have to depend on books for most of their 

 information concerning birds, flowers, and other 

 forms of life. There is, however, no reason why 

 one should not, even in the heart of a great city, 

 begin to cultivate his powers of observation. Let 

 us take, for example, the omnipresent English 

 sparrow. Most of us probably know the difference 

 between the male and female English sparrows, 

 but I venture to say that not one in ten persons 

 could give a satisfactory description of the colours 

 of either. How much we look and how little we 

 really see ! 



Little can be said in favour of the English spar- 

 rows ' disposition, but let us not blame them for 

 their unfortunate increase in numbers. Man 

 brought them from England, where they are kept 

 in check by Nature 's wise laws. These birds were 

 deliberately introduced where Nature was not 

 prepared for them. 



When we put aside prejudice we can see that 

 the male bird, especially when in his bright spring 

 colours, is really very attractive, with his ashy 

 gray head, his back streaked with black and bay, 

 the white bar on his wings and the jet black chin 



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