THE SPARROW. 
103 
An old writer says that “Sparrows in the morning early, chirping and making 
more noise than ordinary they use to do, foretell rain or wind.”* Aubrey tells a 
marvellous story of a Sparrow which pecked for many days at the window of one 
Major John Morgan of Wells, who lay ill of fever at Broad Chalk. He heads 
this “An omen;” and the reader naturally expects a fatal ending. But the sick 
man recovered, and nothing came of it. Perhaps it is this circumstance, however, 
which staggered that credulous writer. The wonder is, seeing what a bad character 
attaches to the Sparrow for his daily misdemeanours, that folk-lore has not painted 
him in much darker colours. Shakespeare, with his knowledge of the Bible, has not 
forgotten that “ there’s a special Providence in the fall of a Sparrow ” (“ Hamlet/’ 
v 2) ; and the Psalmist’s “ Sparrow upon the house-top ” has doubtless procured 
some consideration for this bird. In Cornwall, however, one of the most cruel of 
customs was at times perpetrated upon the Sparrow by the miners. This was called 
“ Sparrow-mumbling,” and consisted in a live Sparrow being fastened with a cord 
to the teeth of the performer, who was expected to “ mumble ” off the feathers of 
the unfortunate bird with his lips alone, until it was plucked quite bare, without 
any help from his fingers or hands. This custom is alluded to in 1614, and seems 
to have lingered until recent years. Public opinion would now never tolerate such 
cruelty. (See “ Notes and Queries,” 4th Series, x. 185.) 
* Brand, Vo!. III., io-j. 
