Birds. 3139 



this solitary plane ; so the contest among the sparrows is to try which 

 can get standing room under the umbrage of a leaf. They build their 

 nests mostly in the chimney-stacks and chinks of the houses close by, 

 but those places are too hot for them during the afternoon of a sum- 

 mer's day. 



Among the many ways in which the working classes of London mi- 

 nister to the wants of each other, and provide for their own necessi- 

 ties; among the many occupations practised in London, but unknown 

 in the country, is that of the keeper of a moving coffee-shop. This 

 useful merchant is the first to light his fire, of all the fires that are daily 

 kindled as so many shrines dedicated to Mammon. He takes his sta- 

 tion at a corner which bisects two streets, where streams of passengers 

 first begin to flow; and there he retails a cup of coffee for a halfpen- 

 ny, and a slice of bread and butter for another halfpenny, which 

 pennyworth of beverage is, I am told, the total breakfast of many a 

 hard-working man. The caravan which composes this peripatetic 

 breakfast- shop, is a long, flat, double-handled wheelbarrow, with an 

 awning, which can be put on and off at will, as the wind or the wea- 

 ther may make it desirable. One of the steadiest merchants in this 

 line of business in all London is Patrick Corbett, who takes up his 

 position by four or five o'clock of the morning in summer, and by the 

 first glimmer of daylight in winter, at the south-east corner of Tavi- 

 stock-square, exactly opposite the plane-tree which I have introduced 

 to your notice. Among the sparrows, which I have said " most do 

 congregate" in this tree, is one — a female — between whom and our 

 coffee salesman, Patrick, there has long existed a most intimate and 

 interesting friendship. This bird is distinguishable from the rest (set- 

 ting aside her familiarities with Patrick) by having a peculiar-shaped 

 crest, and a few very dark feathers behind the nape of the head. Al- 

 though this sparrow is a female, the old man always calls her "Dick," 

 after the manner of children, who, as you know, call all little birds 

 " Dicks." The friendship between Patrick and " Dick " has now lasted 

 nearly four years, and, with the exception of the space of about two or 

 three months (which I will particularly relate), the two friends have, for 

 all this period, every morning without fail breakfasted together, and 

 held sweet converse together over their morning meal ! Old Patrick 

 cannot tell how the attachment between " Dick " and him first exhi- 

 bited itself, or which of them made the first overtures. For the sake 

 of female " honour," one would fain hope that Patrick made the first 

 advances, and so gradually won the confidence and justified the fami- 

 liarities of Lady Sparrow. I know not how much coyness, and difB- 



