FOX SPAKROW 311 



March 3, 1860. The first song sparrows are very 

 inconspicuous and shy on the brown earth. You hear 

 some weeds rustle, or think you see a mouse run amid 

 the stubble, and then the sparrow flits low away. 



[See also under Robin, p. 387; Bluebird, pp. 398, 

 399; General and Miscellaneous, pp. 406, 413, 425, 

 426.] 



FOX SPARROW; FOX-COLOEED SPARROW 



March 31, 1852. Methinks I would share every crea- 

 ture's suffering for the sake of its experience and joy. 

 The song sparrow and the transient fox-colored spar- 

 row, — have they brought me no message this year ? 

 Do they go to lead heroic lives in Rupert's Land? 

 They are so small, I think their destinies must be large. 

 Have I heard what this tiny passenger has to say, while 

 it flits thus from tree to tree ? Is not the coming of the 

 fox-colored sparrow something more earnest and sig- 

 nificant than I have dreamed of ? Can I forgive myself 

 if I let it go to Rupert's Land before I have appre- 

 ciated it? God did not make this world in jest ; no, nor 

 in indifference. These migrating sparrows all bear mes- 

 sages that concern my life. I do not pluck the fruits 

 in their season. I love the birds and beasts because 

 they are mythologically in earnest. I see that the spar- 

 row cheeps and flits and sings adequately to the great 

 design of the universe ; that man does not communi- 

 cate with it, understand its language, because he is not 

 at one with nature. I reproach myself because I have 

 regarded with indifference the passage of the birds ; I 

 have thought them no better than I. 



