EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 153 



perpetually dancing about the garden flowers find 

 that the eye grows weary of seeing the daintiest 

 forms and brightest colours and liveliest motions 

 that birds exhibit* We are told that Edward the 

 Confessor grew so sick of the incessant singing of 

 nightingales in the forest of Havering-at-Bower 

 that he prayed to Heaven to silence their music ; 

 whereupon the birds promptly took their departure, 

 and returned no more to that forest until after the 

 king's death. The sparrow is not so sensitive as the 

 legendary nightingales, and is not to be got rid of 

 in this easy manner* He is amenable only to a 

 rougher kind of persuasion ; and it would be im- 

 possible to devise a more effectual method of lessening 

 his predominance than that which Nature teaches 

 namely, to subject him to the competition of other and 

 better species. He is well equipped for the struggle 

 hardy, pugnacious, numerous, and in possession. He 

 would not be in possession and so predominant if he 

 had not these qualities, and great pliability of instinct 

 and readiness to seize on vacant places. Nevertheless, 

 even with the sturdy sparrow a very small thing might 

 turn the scale, particularly if we were standing by and 

 putting a little artificial pressure on one side of the 

 balance ; for it must be borne in mind that the very 

 extent and diversity of the ground he occupies is a 

 proof that he does not occupy it effectually, and that 

 his position is not too strong to be shaken. It is not 



