230 CLASS AVES. 



nature. It has become almost domestic, and lives, as it 

 were, entirely in the society of man. The sparrows are 

 very troublesome lodgers, and importunate guests : impu- 

 dent parasites, in fact, which will share with us, whether 

 we will or no, our grains, our fruits, and our habitations. 

 What could have been the situation of these birds before 

 man had formed large societies, before he had cultivated 

 the ground, so as to produce abundant harvests, may be 

 a very curious, though very futile question. They have 

 never been found in the truly wild state, abandoned to 

 their own resources. None have ever been taken which did 

 not exhibit a very decided mark of the domestication cha- 

 racteristic of the whole race. We may, however, suspect, 

 with much probability, that this species was much less 

 numerous, in the earlier ages of the world, than it is at 

 present. 



The habit of living in the midst of us, has brought the 

 instinct of the sparrows to a very great degree of perfection ; 

 perhaps we should express ourselves better, were we to 

 say, that to their natural instinct it has superadded all the 

 intelligence that they are permitted to acquire, through 

 the medium of observation, stimulated by their natural 

 wants. They know, perfectly Avell, how to accommodate 

 their manners and habits to situations, times, and circum- 

 stances. They can even, in some sort, vary their lan- 

 guage ; and as they are extremely loquacious, it is not at 

 all difficult to distinguish in their cry, the expressions of 

 appeal, of fear, of anger, of pleasure. In the midst of an 

 association, which they have formed against the inclina- 

 tion of one of the parties, and that, too, the most power- 

 ful, for their own advantage, and to the detriment, or at least 

 to the apparent detriment, of those with whom this compul- 

 sory union is established, the sparrows have contrived to 

 preserve their independence. Bolder than the generality of 



