VIII 



THE FIELD SPARROW AND THE CHIPPER 



ALL beginners in bird study find the sparrow 

 family a hard one. There are so many kinds 

 of sparrows, and the different kinds look so con- 

 fusingly alike. How shall I ever be able to tell 

 them apart ? the novice says to himself. 



Well, there is no royal road to such learning, 

 it may as well be confessed. But there is a road, 

 for all that, and a pretty good one, the road 

 of patience ; and there is much pleasure to be 

 had in following it. If you know one sparrow, 

 be it only the so-called " English/' you have 

 made a beginning. 



If you know the English sparrow, I say ; for, 

 strange as it may seem, I find numbers of peo- 

 ple who do not. Take the average inhabitant 

 of any of our large cities into the country, and 

 let him come upon an English sparrow in a way- 

 side hedge, and there are three chances to one 

 that he will not know with certainty what to 

 call it. Quite as likely as not he has never 

 noticed that there are two kinds of English spar- 



