which it belongs. The fact was known to the Greeks, and it has
been transmitted to posterity how a Greek orator once exclaimed
(I quote from memory):--"While I am speaking to you a sparrow
has come to tell to other sparrows that a slave has dropped on
the floor a sack of corn, and they all go there to feed upon the
grain." The more, one is pleased to find this observation of old
confirmed in a recent little book by Mr. Gurney, who does not
doubt that the house sparrows always inform each other as to
where there is some food to steal; he says, "When a stack has
been thrashed ever so far from the yard, the sparrows in the yard
have always had their crops full of the grain."(17) True, the
sparrows are extremely particular in keeping their domains free
from the invasions of strangers; thus the sparrows of the Jardin
du Luxembourg bitterly fight all other sparrows which may attempt
to enjoy their turn of the garden and its visitors; but within
their own communities they fully practise mutual support, though
occasionally there will be of course some quarrelling even
amongst the best friends.

Hunting and feeding in common is so much the habit in the
feathered world that more quotations hardly would be needful: it
must be considered as an established fact. As to the force
derived from such associations, it is self-evident. The strongest
birds of prey are powerless in face of the associations of our
smallest bird pets. Even eagles--even the powerful and terrible
booted eagle, and the martial eagle, which is strong enough to
carry away a hare or a young antelope in its claws--are
compelled to abandon their prey to bands of those beggars the
kites, which give the eagle a regular chase as soon as they see
it in possession of a good prey. The kites will also give chase