152 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



us like a sound of subdued and happy laughter. 

 In London itself this merriment of Nature never 

 irritates ; it is so much finer and more aerial in 

 character than the gross jarring noises of the street, 

 that it is a relief to listen to it, and it is like melody. 

 In the quiet suburbs it sounds much louder and 

 without intermission. And going further afield, in 

 woods, gardens, hedges, hamlets, towns — every- 

 where there is the same running, rippling sound of 

 the omnipresent sparrow, and it becomes mono- 

 tonous at last. We have too much of the sparrow* 

 But we are to blame for that. He is the unskilled 

 worker that Nature has called in to do the work 

 of skilled hands, which we have foolishly turned 

 away. He is willing enough to take it all on himself ; 

 his energy is great; he bungles away without 

 ceasing J and being one of a joyous temperament, 

 he whistles and sings in his tuneless fashion at his 

 work, until, like the grasshopper of Ecclesiastes, 

 he becomes a burden. For how tiring are the sight 

 and sound of grasshoppers when one journeys many 

 miles and sees them incessantly rising hke a sounding 

 cloud before his horse, and hears their shrill notes 

 all day from the wayside ! Yet how pleasant to listen 

 to their minstrelsy in the green summer foliage, where 

 they are not too abundant ! We can have too much 

 of anything, however charming it may be in itself. 

 Those who live where scores of humming-birds are 



