The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-31
Something About SparrOMs.

writer in Au The. Year Round gossips about
the sparrow and its usefulness:-
"There are, according to the great French
naturalist, Button, who somewhat angrily calls
the sparrow an idle glutton,' no less than sixty
seven varieties of this well. known bird. The best
known of the sixty-seven-all of them inhabit
ants OF the old or Eastern hemisphere and none
OF them known, except by name, in the Western
world-are the house sparrow, the tree sparrow
and the hedge sparrow, to which think should
be added the London sparrow. Unlike the
swallow the cuckoo, and other migratory birds,
the sparrow does not seek perpetual spring or
summer, by travel TO the sunny SOUTH but stays
with us in all seasons. The severest winter does
not drive him away, though 1t may sometimes
XIII him or force HIM to desperate straits for
subsistence. All the year round he twitters in
town and country, and picks up a livelihood as
best he can; and all the year round he multi
plies his kind. The hen produces three broods
in the twelvemonth.
ain the United States of America and
Canada, where there are no sparfows-and
where Jew small birds can live, unless in the
wilderness-paruy from the TACT that every
small boy from the age OF eleven upwards Is
allowed to carry gun, and blaze away at
everything with wings, bigger than q butterfly or
a humming bird, that comes within range of his
weapon; the plague of caterpillars, especially
of that known as the measure worm Is
beyond conception to the dwellers in our more
fortunate isles. In the hot summers--and it
should be remembered that even the Northern
States of America enjoy (or suffer irom)
climate similar TO that of Spain or Morocco
the SHADE of trees is especially agreeable. and in
the principal streets OF the principal cities the
ailanthus, the elm, the maple, and other trees
are planted both for their beauty and their
utility. Unlucklly the measure worm vile
disgusting, black caterpillar that breeds in in
credible numbers, loves the trees also, and the
early leaves no soouer expand than tue 'mea
surer' begins to disport himself by dangling
from the boughs
IAN attempt to naturalize the sparrow in
Australia has tucceeded to the fullest degree
u L.
of healthy birds to Melbourne. They were let
loose immeda ely on arrival, and betook them
selves to the tiles and the tree-tOps; and pos
sibIy because the little Australian boys have not
yet been entrusted with firearms, or because
the erimGlkins-hKe themselves, a recent mmi.
grafton to the antpodes-looked with as little
concern upon sparroWs in the new country as
they do in the Old they speedily began to pair
aud breed, and make themselves at home. So
greatly have they hOurished-lt is 10 be ho sed,
at the expense in the first instance of the gnats
and the caterplllars-that the gardeners IN the
neighborhoUd ct Melbourne have begun 10 COM
PLAN, Just as gardeners and farmers foolshly do
at home, of their depredations upon the peas
and cherries.
The London sparrow, like other created
things, takes something of his color from his
habitat, and Is brown, dingy, dirty, smoky
hued featherling compared with the country
sparrow, in whose plumagc white and gray and
pure black, mingle haTmoniously with the russell
brown, which is the predominant color of his
livery. He has to make as hard fight for his
living as the city Arab There are no cornfelds
TO pillage, no orchards to roo, no succuent
green peas OF juicy cherries TO be got There is
nothing for him but the refuse of men and
animals; flies, spiders, earwigs, and all the
veTmin that haunt the cTanules of old brick
work, or embed themselves in the interstices of
states ard tiles. In the country he has human
enemies, and good many of them; in the town
his only enemy Is the cat.
There is, it is true, q tradition that some
poor Polish and other political refugees from the
wars, revolutions, and intrigues of OLtinental
Europe who inhabit the foreign settlements
around Leicester square, are in the habit of
setting traps and springs for the sparro VS. at the
windows of their squalid attics, and eating
them, in default sometimes of any other kind
of food; but il this be the case, it is exceptional
and can make but slight inroad upon the
security OF ain ost the only small bird that lives
in state of nature and wild freedom in the
metropolis. Among the Loudoners the sparro W
is rather a iavorite than otherwise, and many a
fair hand of child or woman in many a poor
locality strews bread.crumbs on some humble
balcony to attract the little dusky chirper to
the window The sparrows soon discover the
places where such treats are provided, and
learn to come regularly for their dinner OF
breakfast, if punctuality be one OF the gifts ol
the donOrn