THE BIRDS OF LONDON. 283 
The Kestrel in all this warke 
Shall be the holy-water clarke. 
Our chanters shall be the Cuckowe, 
The Curlei and the Stockdowe ; 
With Peewyt, the Lapwing 
The versycles shall synge. 
The Swan of Menander, 
The Gose and the Gander, 
The Ducke and the Drake, 
Shall watch at his wake.” 
Gascoyne, too, has a sonnet in praise of “ Philip Sparrow,” 
the familiar name by which this bird is known, from his note, 
commencing thus— ; 
“ Of all the birds that I doo know, 
Philip, my Sparrow, hath no peere ; 
For sit she high or lye she low, 
Be she far off or be she neere, 
There is no bird so faire, so fine, 
Nor yet so fresh as this of mine.” 
Many doubtless are familiar with a beautiful engraving of 
“ Lesbia and her Sparrow,” after a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
suggested by the poem by William Cartwright :— 
“ Tell me not of joy; there’s none 
Now my little Sparrow’s gone; 
He, just as you, 
Would toy and wove; 
He would chirp and flatter me. 
% * *% 6 ao ** 
Then would hop and then would run, 
And cry Philip when h’ had done. 
a + x 2k * cS 
Now this faithfull bird is gone, 
O let mournful Turtles joyn, 
With loving Redbreasts, and combine, 
To sing dirges o'r his stone.” 
In London the Sparrow is a very early breeder. I have the 
following notes :—“ Feb. 22,1877. Sparrows building nest, nearly 
complete, in a Virginian creeper at No. 6, The Terrace, Ken- 
sington.” “March 2, 1878. Sparrows building in the ivy of the 
gardener’s house, Kensington Gardens,” 
