10 BIBDS IN LONDON 



harmonious olive green and yellow tints, pure 

 greys and pure browns, with rose, carmine, tile 

 and chestnut reds ; and if the monotonous little 

 burly forms could be reshaped, and made in 

 some cases larger, in others smaller, some 

 burlier still and others slimmer, more delicate 

 and aerial in appearance, the spectacle of their 

 afternoon tea would be infinitely more attractive 

 and refreshing than it now is to many a 

 Londoner's tired eyes. 



Their voices, too — for the refashioned mixed 

 crowd would have a various language, like the 

 species that warble and twitter and call music- 

 ally to one another in orchard and copse — 

 would give a new and strange delight to the 

 listener. 



No doubt the sparrow is, to quote the letter- 

 writer's expression, ' a jolly little fellow,' quite 

 friendly with his supposed enemy man, amusing 

 in his tea-table manners, and deserving of all 

 the praise and crumbs we give him. He is even 

 more. To those who have watched him begging 

 for and deftly catching small scraps of bread, 

 suspended like a hawk-moth in the air before 

 the giving hand, displaying his conspicuous 

 black gorget and the pale ash colour of his under 



