London Birds. 169 



shelter suffices, for safety they seem to have little care ; fami- 

 liarity with the noise and bustle of the City renders them 

 fearless, and you see them foraging under the heels of horses 

 and along the line of cab ranks with much the same non- 

 chalance as those mysterious ragged urchins who swarm about 

 the pavement of the Exchange, and live no one knows how. 



Next to the pigeons, the City sparrows claim attention. 

 They are a sooty race, inured to City life and usages, and 

 exhibit in their habits an indefatigable determination to 

 ce get on.'"' During the mid-day hours, when Cheapside is in 

 a constant tremor with the clatter of hoofs and vibration of 

 wheels, the sparrows are as busy as the people. If there be 

 but for an instant a blank space in the roadway, down drop 

 half a dozen and forage with furious impetuosity among the 

 droppings of horses for scraps of undigested grain, and for 

 the flies that settle on the disjecta even more quickly than 

 themselves. You may observe that they calculate almost to 

 an inch and a second their escape from the next team, alight- 

 ing on the nearest window sills, and waiting to descend again 

 the next moment any blank occurs. There are very few 

 City houses that afford accommodation for sparrows to nest. 

 The builders take the best care to prevent their gaining a 

 settlement anywhere, for they damage the properties they 

 select for their habitations much more than is generally sup- 

 posed. The boxes placed at the summit of water spouts, 

 where the rush of water from the roof finds its way from the 

 slope to the perpendicular, are their usual nesting places ; and 

 when the next heavy rain comes the nest stops the way, and 

 the water leaps over the top of the spout and comes down 

 sputtering on the pavement in an inky flood. Then a plumber 

 is sent for, a ladder is placed, and presently a conglomeration 

 of hay, straw, rags, shoe-strings, bits of paper, tufts of hair 

 (human), strips of parchment, corks', bristles, and other 

 rubbish is dragged out, with mayhap, if it is the right season, 

 eggs or callow young, and an end is unceremoniously made of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Chirk 5 s establishment; and that removed, the 

 water betakes itself to its proper channel. But the majority 

 of the City sparrows build about churches and large public 

 buildings. The sparrow is a public character, and loves the 

 neighbourhood of boards, vestries, committees, and people 

 who dine gloriously; for these happy folks have not only 

 plenty of brickwork, and warm chimneys, and gable ends, and 

 cornices, and architectural pockets ; bub they have also a few 

 trees or a bit of garden hard by their places of assembly, and 

 these suit the sparrow, who loves a bit of country even when 

 gorged with refuse from the " Albion." The love of sparrows 

 for trees is well known by Londoners. There are certain spots 



