Gould: The Sparrow.

Hirst (Stedman): The Fringilla melodia.

Lampman: The Song-sparrow.

Larcom: A Song-Sparrow in March; The Field Sparrow; The Sing-away Bird (the white-throated sparrow).

Lathrop: The Song-Sparrow.

Thomas: The Vesper Sparrow.
Valentine: Sparrows.

West: The White-throated Sparrow.

Carman-Hovey: Ornithology.

Vid. s. v. PArrus.

Like Apollonius of old,

Who knew the tales of sparrows told.-WHITTIER.

The free-born sparrows of the air,

That flit about her windows fair,

Enjoy her smile and have her care.-WALLACE.

Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque

Et quantum est hominum venustiorum.
Passer mortuus est meae puellae,
Passer, deliciae meae puellae,
Quem plus illa oculis suis amabat:
Nam mellitus erat suamque novat
Ipsam tam bene quam puella matrem.
Nec sese a gremio illius movebat,
Sed circumsiliens modo huc modo illuc
Ad solam dominam usque pipilabat.

-CAT. III, 1.

Vid. Matthew Arnold, Poor Mathias.

Best taken as the common sparrow, but to the Roman reader other associations would inevitably occur. Cf. Gesner, op. cit., p. 622.

Passer ille Catullianus allegorice, ut arbitror, obsceniorem quempiam celat intellectum, quem salva verecundia nequimus enuntiare. Cf. Festus, s. v. Strutheum.

For echoes of these two inimitable bird poems vid. Juv. VI, 8; Mart.

I, 7; I, 109; IV, 14; VII, 14; XIV, 77, et al.

Poe's Raven holds an analogous position in American literature.

Cf. Sarah Helen Whitman, The Raven (passim).

There comes Poe, with his Raven.-LowEll.

The terrible might do, mother, some wild, unearthly story;

I might ride, for a Pegasus, a nightmare into glory.

But then that "Raven" there, mother, above that 'chamber-door,'
I asked him if 'twould be a hit,-quoth the raven,

"Never more!"-GRACE GREENWOOD.'

For passerculus as a term of endearment vid. s. v. COTURNIX. Plaut., Asin. 666, s. v. ANAS. Plaut., Asin. 693. Cf. also Varro, Maripor. For pullus passer in the same connotation vid. s. v. COLUMBA.

The association of the sparrow with Venus does not occur in the Latin poets. Vid. Sappho, Fr. 1, 9.

To thy chariot yoked, fair fleet sparrows drew thee,
Flapping fast their wings; round the dark earth circling
From the lofty heaven down through middle ether
Quickly descending.-ELIZABETH AKERS.

(Ode to Aphrodite. Sappho.)

Passer as a term of reproach:

Dic, passer, cui tot montes, tot praedia servas.

Cf. Plin. X, 107. Priap. 26, 6.

-Juv. IX, 54.

For the Fable of the Sparrow and the Hare, vid. s. v. AQUILA. For the mother bird and the eight young devoured by the serpent at Aulis, vid. Ov., Met. XII, 15; Sil. Ital., Il. Lat. 147.

Perhaps, while here thou sweetly sung,
Some serpent stole thy new-fledg'd young;
Or boys, perhaps, in cruel play

Have borne thy tender care away.-
-BAYARD.
(Address to the Robin Red-Breast. The
Columbian Muse, 1794, p. 179.)

The sparrow as a harbinger of spring:

Nunc sturnos inopes fringillarumque querelas
Audit, et arguto passere vernat ager.

-MART. IX, 55, 7.

p. 58.

While the song-sparrow warbling from her perch
Tells you that spring is near.—BRYANT.

The Easter sparrow repeats her song,
A merry warbler, she chides the blossoms,
The idle blossoms that sleep so long.-Bryant.

Here when the Spring begins to call
The sparrow sings his madrigal;

Through sleet and hail, in shine or rain,

I hear him o'er and o'er again:

"Resilio! Silio! Silio! Sil!"-ROSE TERRY COOKE.

The gray song-sparrows, full of spring, have sung

Their clear thin silvery tunes in leafless trees.-LAMPMAN.

The autumn song:

And sparrows fill the autumn air

With merry muting.-MITCHELL (Stedman).

Other references to the sparrow's song. Vid. Wackernagel, op. cit.,

Hinc titiare cupit diversa per avia passer.
-Anth. Lat. 733, 4.

Pessimus et passer sons titiare solet.

-Anth. Lat. 762, 30.

Every little sparrow twitters.-SILL.

The sparrow with its simple notes.-WHITMAN.

The song-sparrow's exquisite warble

Is born in the heart of the rose.-LARCON.

Here cat- and blue-bird and wood-sparrow wrote
Their presence on the silence with a tune.-CAWEIN.

PASSER MARINUS. Ergodoxáμnios. Ostrich.

Struthio camelus.

The ostrich in the circus:

Στρουθοκάμηλος.

Vola curriculo. Pa. Istuc marinus passer per circum solet.
-PLAUT., Pers. 198.

The ales equus of Cat. LXVI, 54, is probably an ostrich.

Cf. Giant-paced mooa; ostrich, feathery steed.-BAILEY.

The boast of the kite in the Fable of the Eagle and the Kite:

Aquila cum tristis assideret milvo

In arbore. Vultu quid te tam maesto, hic ait,
Conspicio? Quaero, dixit illa, coniugem
Parem nec invenire possum. Me accipe,
Te multo qui sum fortior: Quid? An potes
Ex rapto victum quaerere? Unguibus meis
Struthiocamelum rapui prensum saepuis.

-Aes. Fab. XXX.

No entail

The first-born lifting into bloated pomp,

Tainting with lust, and sloth, and pride, and rage,
The world around him: all the race beside,
Like brood of ostrich, left for chance to rear,
And every foot to trample.--TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
(Greenfield Hill.)

Didst thou the ostrich clothe with plumes so neat,
Who leaves her eggs exposed to heedless feet?
Hatch'd by the genial influence of the sun,
Alone, the unfledged brood are left to run.
In flight she scorns the rider and his steed;
Through eddies of the sand unspurn'd, her speed
Impetuously she skims; than winds more fleet,

She triumphs in th' alertness of her feet.-DEVENS (Kettell).

As desert birds are by the sun

Warmed into life within their nests.-CLARKE.

For Love, when he would safely keep

His head in secret hiding deep

Is but an ostrich in the sand.-READ.

PAVO. Taws. Peacock. Pavo cristatus.
The peacock's beauty is typical of its kind:

Aurea pavonum ridenti imbuta lepore
Saecla, novo rerum superata colore iacerent
Et contemptus odor smyrnae mellisque sapores,
Et cycnea mele Phoebeaque daedala chordis
Carmina consimili ratione oppressa silerent.
LUCR. II, 502.

Colors due to the effect of sunshine:

Caudaque pavonis, larga cum luce repleta est,
Consimili mutat ratione obversa colores.

-LUCR. II, 806.

Full on the morn the peacock op'd his beams.
(Creation.)
-TIMOTHY DWIGHT.

Sylvia shone out, no peacock finer.-TRUMBULL.

Brilliant traits of mind,

And genius, clear and countless as the dies.
Upon the peacock's plumage.-HALLECK.

She brings the magic of an Indian night
Where smolder peacock-breasts of phosphor-green,
Ruffled by jungle zephyrs ne'er so light.-RIGGS.

Men laud the peacock's beauty:

Laudatas homini volucris Iunonia pennas

Explicat, et forma muta superbit avis.

-Ov., Med. Fac. 33.

But cf. Et praeter pennas nihil in pavone placebat.

-Ov., Fast. VI, 177.

Cui comparatus indecens erat pavo,
Inamabilis sciurus, et frequens phoenix.

-MART. V, 37, 12.

Didicit iam dives avarus

Tantum admirari, tantum laudare disertos,
Ut pueri Iunonis avem.-Juv. VII, 30.

The parrot is more beautiful than the peacock:

Occidit aeriae celeberrimae gloria gentis.
Psittacus, ille plagae viridis regnator Eoae;
Quem non gemmata volucris Iunonia cauda
Vinceret adspectu, gelidi non Phasidis ales.

-STAT. SILV. II, 4, 24.

Cf. Mart. III, 58, 13. Gemmeique pavones.
The phoenix has some of the colors of the peacock:

Effigies inter pavonis mixta figuram.

Cernitur et pictam Phasidis inter avem.

-LACT., De Phoen. 143.