70 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



favoured bj/ better-bred birds, although an ardent 

 admirer of the sex, which generally seems to be 

 teterrima causa belli with his race. And courage 

 is certainly another good quality to be put down 

 to Philip's credit. Alike in a single-hand fight, and 

 in backing up a .friend, he will give a good account 

 of himself, while the same dogged tenacity has won 

 the reluctant admiration okhis unwilling American 

 hosts when displayed ia his unremitting care of his 

 young, which he will do his best to start in the world 

 at all costs even when handicapped by the loss of a 

 partner, or by the unseasonable accident of a young 

 hopeful having fallen out of the nest when too 

 unfledged to be got back to it ; other birds in such a case 

 would often give up such a child as deserving its fate, 

 but the despised Sparrow will stick to him and pull 

 him through. Then again, Phihp is a practical 

 philosopher ; although, unlike most finches, he has 

 no song, he is always cheerful ; one of the most versatile 

 of birds, he will eat anything, wallow in sand or wash 

 in water, nest anywhere, and stand any climate ; for, 

 as anyone can see, he bears the Indian heat as well 

 as most other birds, while in the States it seems that 

 his high northern range is limited, not so much by 

 direct effect of cold itseK as by the circumstance 

 that it freezes the horse-droppings, on which city 

 Sparrows depend for food to so large an extent. 



