THE SPARROW. 188

Psalm cii., is a thrush in size, in shape, in habits, and in
song; with this difference, that it is remarkable throughout
all the East, for sitting solitary on the habitations of man.
The first time I ever saw this lonely, plaintive songster,
was in going to hear mass in the magnificent church of the
Jesuits at Rome. The dawn was just appearing, and the
bird passed over my head, in its transit from the roof of
the Palace Odescalchi to the church of the Twelve Apostles,
singing as it flew. . . . It is, indeed, a solitary bird, for it
never associates with any other, and only with its own mate
at breeding time; and even then it is often seen quite alone
upon the house-top, where it warbles in sweet and plaintive
" strains, and continues its song as it moves in easy flight
from roof to roof. It lays five eggs, of a very pale blue. The
bird itself is blue, with black wings and tail; the blue of the
body becoming lighter when placed in different attitudes.”
The sparrow is mentioned twice in the Psalms, and the
original Hebrew word ¢zippor occurs very frequently in the
Scriptures, but is elsewhere translated “bird” or “ fowl ;” it
has both a general and definite signification, and it is not
very easy to determine which is intended. In Psalm lxxxiv.,
the restricted sense is doubtless the true one, as it agrees
with the habit of the sparrow. “ Yea, the sparrow hath found