AND SONG BIRDS. 



5 



solitarius in tecto." " I have watched, and am 

 become as a sparrow all alone upon the house- 

 top." I Have often wondered what bird this 

 could be ; knowing, by daily experience, that 

 it could not actually be the house-sparrow ; 

 for the house-sparrow is not solitary in its 

 habits. I despaired of being able to trace its 

 character satisfactorily, and I should probably 

 have long remained in ignorance of it, had I 

 not visited the southern parts of Europe. 



My arrival in Rome let me at once into the 

 secret. The bird to which the repentant king 

 of Israel compared himself in the seven peni- 

 tential psalms is a real thrush in size, in shape, 

 in habits, and in song ; with this difference 

 from the rest of the tribe, that it is remarkable 

 throughout all the East for sitting solitary on 

 the habitations of man. 



The first time I ever saw this lonely plaintive 

 songster was in going to hear mass in the mag- 

 nificent church of the Jesuits at Rome. The 

 dawn was just appearing, and the bird passed 

 over my head, in its transit from the roof of 

 the Palace Odescalchi to the belfry of the 

 Church of the Twelve Apostles, singing as it 

 flew, I thought it had been the Italian black- 



B 3 



