BIRDS IN LONDON 287 



I observed that these insects were abundant on 

 the grass in the central parks. Going out, I 

 went some distance on foot and on the top of 

 an omnibus, and found the same state of things 

 everywhere — the sparrows all sitting on the 

 highest points attainable, and not one bird to 

 be seen in the streets or on the trees. I also 

 saw many starhngs in parties of four or five to 

 a dozen, nearly all young birds ; and in most 

 instances these did not make forays after passing 

 insects from a stand, but flew continuously in 

 circles at a height of forty or fifty yards above 

 the houses. Many persons who observed them 

 wheeling about so high up in the air took them 

 for swallows. 



It is indeed seldom that the London sparrow 

 has an opportunity of going back to the wild 

 deUghts of an insectivorous diet, reminding us in 

 doing so that he does not live by stale bread 

 alone — when there is something else to be had. 

 Another of my notes made last spring on this 

 much -written -about little bird relates to his 

 mischievous propensities ; or shall we rather say 

 his sesthetic tastes ? In May a pair of sparrows 

 built their slovenly nest behind a rain-pipe, close 



