WINTER NEIGHBORS. 71 



these sparrows, as they long have had to do on I 

 continent of Europe. And yet it will be hard to K 

 the little wretches, the only Old World bird we ha 

 When I take down my gun to shoot them I shall prob- 

 ably remember that the Psalmist said, k * 1 watch, ai 

 am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top," and mai 

 be the recollection will cause me to stay my Iran.. 

 The sparrows have the Old World hardiness and pr< 

 lificness; they are wise and tenacious of life, and 

 shall find it by and by no small matter to keep them 

 in check. Our native birds are much different, ! 

 prolific, less shrewd, less aggressive and persistent, 

 less quick-witted and able to read the note of danger 

 or hostility, — in short, less sophisticated. Most of 

 our birds are yet essentially wild, that is, little chang 

 by civilization. In winter, especially, they sweep by 

 me and around me in flocks, — the Canada Bparrow, 

 the snow-bunting, the shore-laik, the pine grosbeak. 

 the red-poll, the cedar-bird, — feeding upon fros 

 apples in the orchard, upon cedar-berries, npon ma- 

 ple-buds, and the berries of the mountain ash, and 

 the celtis, and upon the seeds of the weeds thai l 

 above the snow in the field, or upon the ha\ » 

 dropped where the cattle have been foddered in the 

 barn-yard or about the distant stack; but yet tak. 

 no heed cf man, in no way changing their habit- 

 as to take advantage of his presence in nature The 

 pine grosbeak will come in numbers upon your porch 

 to get the black drupes of the honeysuckle or I 

 woodbine, or within reach of your windows the 



berries of the mountain-ash, but they know you D 

 they look at you as innocently and unconcernedly 

 at a bear or moose in their native north, and ^>ur 

 house is no more to them than a ledge of rocks. 



