COCK ROBIN’S MURDERER 
O bird, except possibly the Indian crow, 
has been the object of so much vilification 
as the sparrow: 
“The spink and the sparrow 
Are the devil’s bow and arrow.” 
So runs the country adage, and the farmers act up to 
its sentiments. They unite to form “sparrow clubs.” 
These benevolent institutions are founded with the pious 
object of destroying as many as possible of the arrows 
of the Prince of Darkness. But the hatred of the 
sparrow is by no means confined to the yokel. 
Respectable ornithologists vie with one another in 
inventing hard names for the pushing little bird. Thus 
Lord Lilford called him Passer impudicus ; Tristram 
dubs him Passer papisticus. Even more scathing is 
Irby’s name for him—Passer damnabilis. These de- 
nominations, however, all pale into insignificance before 
the expressive epithet of the farm labourer, which may 
be Latinized into Passer sanguineus ! 
“The sparrow,” writes Masius, “is a vulgar bird—a 
proletarian, with all the cunning and vices of his class. 
Slight and persecution are his inheritance. Even in the 
Bible it is said, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a 
71 
