80 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



flicker and red-headed woodpecker are also spending 

 their winter in the South. The great mass of our 

 bird population has left us until warmer weather shall 

 bring back to us once more our feathered friends. It 

 is true that we are south to the snowbirds or j uncos, 

 and their little slate-colored bodies, with their light 

 breasts and their white on each side of the tail, make 

 our bare hedge rows brighter by their presence. A 

 few of our birds like the song sparrow and the car- 

 dinal are hidden away in the thicket, and have not 

 all joined their comrades in the south. 



The English sparrow was once probably quite as 

 migratory as any of the rest of these, but a great 

 change has come over his habits. With his newly 

 acquired fondness for the haunts of men he has suf- 

 fered a change in this respect also. Whatever may 

 have been his reason for migrating, it no longer holds. 

 He now finds himself quite able to stand the cold of 

 winter. Accordingly he never leaves us, except very 

 temporarily. When the migrating season comes the 

 sparrows of the neighborhod are very likely to gather 

 themselves together in a single group and take to the 

 neighboring country. I believe this flocking on their 

 part at this time of the year is a remnant of the old 

 migratory habit. Until snow covers the ground the 

 sparrow is not likely to be seen again in such num- 

 bers in the city. The advantage the sparrow gains 





