HOUSE-SPARROW. 



P ASSURES. 



89 

 FRINGILLIDM. 



PASSER DOMESTICUS (Linnaeus*). 



THE HOUSE-SPARROW. 



Passer domesticiis. 



OF all our British Birds the Sparrow t is found through- 

 out the year, whether in country or town, more attached to 

 and identified with the habitations of men than any other ; 



* Fringilla domestica, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 323 (1766). 



f This familiar bird in olden days was nicknamed, just as the Redbreast, 

 Wren, Titmouse, Daw and Pie were called Robin, Jenny, Tom, Jack and Mag 

 respectively. ' ' Philip Sparrow " was a great favourite with the early English 

 poets, but for centuries past this prefix, which is said to have been purely imita- 

 tive of the bird's chirp, seems to have dropped out of use. Mr. Skeat in his 

 excellent edition of Langland's 'Piers the Plowman,' published for the Early 

 English Text Society, has shewn (part II. pp. xvii. , xxi.) that two of its ancient 

 versions, one at least written soon after the year 1400, mention " Sire philip J>e 

 sparwe." Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. (ed. Dyce, i. p. 51) has an 

 elegy on the death of a pet Sparrow ("whyte as mylke," whom "Gyb our cat 

 hath slayne"), intituled 'The boke of Phyllyp Sparowe ' and written before the 

 end of 1508 ; while Gascoigne, who was born about 1525 and died in 1577, also 

 indited 'The Praise of Philip Span-owe.' Both the latter have the contractiou 



VOL. II. N 



