THE HOUSE-SPARROW 195 



another. "Idem non semper idem." And first, of 

 the commonest of them all, the bird against which 

 much may be said that cannot, I fear, be gainsaid, 

 even by the most catholic of bird-lovers, and the 

 bird which I myself am disposed to like least of all, 

 the house-sparrow. Early prejudices are strong, 

 and often inveterate ; and I confess to never 

 having got over the prejudice against the house- 

 sparrow produced in me, in very early life, by a 

 toy-book, forcibly and profusely illustrated though 

 hardly in the style of Caldecott containing the old 

 nursery ballad of " Who killed Cock Robin?" 

 There, on one page, was the innocent little robin, 

 the favourite of gods and men, the bird which had 

 piously covered the bodies of the Babes in the 

 Wood with leaves, lying dead, his limbs relaxed 

 and stiffening, his bright eye glazed and dull, and a 

 tiny arrow sticking in his orange breast, from which 

 were oozing a few minute drops of crimson blood. 

 And there, on the opposite page, was the vulgar- 

 looking murderer, the fatal bow held aloft in one 

 small claw, bold, brazen-faced, unrepentant, glorying 

 in his deed of shame. 



" 'I,' said the Sparrow, 

 'With my bow and arrow, 

 I killed Cock Robin.'" 



