X.— THE SPARROW. 



" Look now to little Philip Sparrow." — Old Ballad. 

 Why not ? Philip himself would certainly say. 

 Once lie must have been considered a friend of man, 

 for his nickname, derived doubtless from his note, 

 is the earhestTknown to have been given to any bird, 

 though now not in use, while Tom Tit, Mag Pie, and 

 Jack Daw have been allowed to retain theirs ; to say 

 nothing of the redbreast, whose real name has been 

 quite dropped in favour of his pet name of " Robin." 

 But Philip has brought his unpopularity on himseK ; 

 no doubt in England in the old days when crows and 

 kites and other enemies, then more numerous, exer- 

 cised on him the wholesome influence that they do 

 in India, he was not sufficiently numerous to be a 

 nuisance, and so from his familiar habits was looked 

 on rather with a kindly eye. Of course I don't mean 

 to imply that crows and kites keep Sparrows down 

 by catching and eating old ones ; the sublime indiffer- 

 ence of the Spapow in their presence is sufficient 

 proof of the contrary. But they exercise a rigid 

 supervision over all young birds. I remember actually 

 seeing once a young Sparrow met on its entrance 



