BY THE STUDY FIRE 171 



by some bread-crumbs spread for sparrows on 

 a window-sill, and my delight in the rainbow 

 sheen in his feathers in the sunshine. In the 

 country they are too common to be a wonder 

 to old or young, though the pale-blue eggshells, 

 which, for some reason best known to them- 

 selves, they drop about the place later on, are 

 rather a joy, both for their lovely colour and 

 as a sign of spring. The starlings' table manners 

 are not to be commended. They don't give 

 their fellow-guests a chance. I have put them 

 before those little reprobates the sparrows by 

 mistake. Like all other reprobates, sparrows 

 have many attractions, and no one who has 

 been cheered in the remembrances of home by 

 their appearance in other climes can help having 

 a soft spot in his heart for them. Still, they 

 do make war collectively against more attrac- 

 tive birds. I saw in a paper the other day 

 that the best way to keep them off a bird-table 

 is to stretch black cotton round it, as one does 

 round the first crocus in the grass, in the vain 

 hope that the wretched sparrows will thereby 

 be prevented from nipping it off to get the drop 

 of sweet juice which is then exposed. The 

 house-sparrows do not trouble the tits in my 

 hedge much, and black cotton is expensive, so 

 they can investigate the mutton-fat and the 



