THE SPARROW. 
99 
very neighbour-like qualities, overlooked, and substituted 
in the attention by things more rare. We shall, there¬ 
fore, recount the history of the sparrow, and say a few 
words on his character as a social being, hoping thereby 
“to point a moral and adorn a tale” 
The house-sparrow (Fringilla Dom,edica) belongs to 
the most interesting of the bird families, being a member 
of the Fringittida , or the Finches, which includes most 
of the birds of song, and those immediately interesting 
in their association with man. Spread pretty equally 
over Europe and the north of Africa, on the plains of 
India, and in the passes of the Himalaya, he is every¬ 
where the companion of man, and is the only bird whose 
habit it is to be at every season in close attendance on 
human dwellings. Considered as an individual, the 
sparrow exhibits a remarkable mixture of opposite quali¬ 
ties. When made to pass through the sanitary processes 
which a city sparrow requires for the exhibition of his 
aboriginal clothing, he appears in a true quaker garb, of 
chesnut, ash, and black, trim in clothing, pert in 
manner, positively pretty, yet still quakerish. But he 
belies his looks; for he is a thief, a pugilist, and an 
everlasting gossip. He is everything by turns, and 
adapts himself to every new condition and circumstance, 
without the least regard to that motto of Emerson's 
which requires us to “ walk upright and vital,” and to 
maintain our integrity under all trials. He will eat the 
daintiest food, and, if that is not at hand, will forage on 
any dustlieap, and eat the veriest garbage. Even in 
feeding he is a paradox; for if the supply be scant, he 
searches keenly, and is content with what he finds him- 
