COCK ROBIN’S MURDERER 73 
Indian brethren their manners are marked by dignity 
and cold reserve.” This savours of exaggeration. Under 
no circumstances whatever can any sparrow be dignified. 
Add 25 per cent to the impudence, 20 per cent to the 
rowdyness, and 15 per cent to the vulgarity of the 
cockney bird, and you will arrive at a tolerably accurate 
estimate of the character of the sparrow that torments 
us who live in this Land of Regrets. 
Far be it from me to attempt to whitewash the 
sparrow. I merely desire to present him in his true 
colours. This being so, I cannot help saying that the 
bird is not so black as he is depicted. He possesses 
the virtues of his class equally with its vices. Like the 
London cad, the sparrow is ever ready for a fight. He 
allows himself to be drawn into an affray on the 
smallest pretext. He is not wanting in pluck, for he 
does not hesitate to attack a bird several sizes larger 
than himself. This, however, is somewhat discounted 
by the fact that he is perfectly well aware that, the 
moment the fight begins, all his companions will come 
to his assistance. 
Still, the sparrow is a bold bird. His supreme in- 
difference to the crows is a sufficient proof of this. Nor 
is he afraid of man. I once stayed in an hotel in India 
in which a colony of sparrows had taken up their 
quarters, and enjoyed board and residence free of charge. 
At meal times ten or twenty of them would take up 
positions on the ledge of a dormer window and thence 
swoop down upon the edibles whenever an opportunity 
presented itself. The sparrow is said to be terribly 
destructive to crops. So he is, but this is because he is 
