THE SPARROW. 
IOI 
of these birds come over from the Continent every autumn to join our natives, 
especially on the eastern coast. The common call-note of the Tree Sparrow is a 
chirp, somewhat shriller than that of the House Sparrow. Mr. Blyth says that the 
cock bird has a proper song of its own, “consisting of a number of these chirps, 
intermixed with some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous unbroken strain, 
sometimes for many minutes together; very loudly, and having a characteristic 
sparrow tone throughout.” The Tree Sparrow has not been recorded as breeding in 
Cornwall, Devon, Wilts, Hants, Surrey, Herts, Middlesex, Bedford, Monmouth, 
Worcester, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. It has not been known to breed in 
Wales, and in Scotland is but thinly scattered here and there. We have found its nests 
abundantly in Notts. It extends across Siberia to Japan. Throughout China and 
its chief islands it has been observed to take the place of the House Sparrow, in¬ 
habiting the towns, “and behaving,” says Professor Newton, “with the careless 
effrontery generally considered to be the peculiar characteristic of that species.” 
Our old poets nicknamed the Sparrow “ Philip,” just as the redbreast is called 
“ Robin.” The Roman poet Catullus wrote two playful poems to his love Lesbia’s 
Sparrow which show the name Philip comes from “Pip” or “ Phip,” an imitation 
of the Sparrow’s chirp; and so Sir Philip Sydney writes on a Sparrow:— 
“ Leave that, Sir Phip, lest offe your necke be wrong.” * 
Chaucer speaks of our bird as 
“ The Sparrow, Venus’ son,” 
this bird having been sacred to that goddess. Bede tells a curious apologue about 
a Sparrow at the conversion of King Edwin (“Ecclesiastical History,” ii., cap. 13), 
which has led to one of Wordsworth’s best-known sonnets: — 
“Man’s life is like a Sparrow, mighty king! 
That—while at banquet with your chiefs you sit 
Housed near a blazing fire—is seen to flit 
Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering, 
Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing 
Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold; 
But whence it came, we know not; nor behold 
Whither it goes.”—(Vol. IV., p. 12, ed. 1857.) 
Shakespeare has a few references to it :— 
“Dismayed not this our captains? 
Yes, as Sparrows eagles!” 
Macbeth , i. 2. 
* Professor Newton’s Yarrell, Vol. II., p. 90. 
