NATURE STUDY. 
114 
proved that their voices might on occasion be not only agree¬ 
able but delightful in quality. 
A month later, in leafy June, we walked through broad 
meadows when the morning sun turned each dewdrop to 
a diamond. A field of timothy sent up its tall, cylindrical 
’ spikes a few rods off at our left. There was still enough 
of morning mist hanging in the air to soften the picture 
and give everything the charm of quavering indefiniteness. 
Hovering over the grass-tops was a flock of birds, which 
seemed to be executing some sort of rhythmic dance, mov¬ 
ing in unison with the precision of a “corps de ballet.” 
They would rise and fall together. At times they would 
. remain motionless except for a quick vibration of the wings, 
a vibration so quick as to make them invisible, like those 
of the humming bird when he sips nectar from the lily. 
They passed through varied and apparently systematic ev¬ 
olutions, every movement the embodiment of grace. We 
watched them a long time, wondering what manner of birds 
they might be, until our curiosity could wait no longer, 
and we drew near them. Away they went, with clumsy 
and labored flight, “squack, squack—cheel-yup, cheel- 
yup.” We had again been taken in and done for by our 
old enemy, Passer domesticus! 
Here is a problem, on which the opposing advocates of 
degeneration and universal progress may exercise their 
wits. Were these sparrows unconsciously rehearsing evo¬ 
lutions through which their remote ancestors had been ac¬ 
customed to go before their characters had become modi¬ 
fied by semi-domestication? Or were they, on the contrary, 
as unconsciously following certain innate aspirations after 
a more symmetrical development, so that, in the course of 
time, they may be able to vie, in beauty, grace and song, 
with the most highly gifted of their kind? For my part, I 
give them the benefit of the doubt. 
These experiences showed us that the sparrows in ques- 
