Tit v. Sparrow More than one of those "whom towns
immure," especially London Town, has expressed wonder at the diminution, here and there the disappearance, of the sparrow. Can it be true that this impudent, friendly, assertive, gregarious, corn-eating, yet urban, bird, grows less common ? One London resident says definitely, " In my Lyndon garden tits seem to have taken the place of sparrows almost entirely." Well, in my country garden, more tits come to the proffered food, even if it is cereal food tossed on to the grass, than sparrows, and when both appear the tits, certainly the great tits, seem to be the more aggressive. Their circulation is immense. A query for information about their newer habits has already evoked over 2,000 answers from all sorts of districts. Bird populations do, of course, go up and down. Blackbirds certainly are on the up grade, as blackcock are on the down, very much down, grade. Sparrows, according to the statisticians, have never been the most numerous species ; and are certainly exceeded by chaffinch and blackbird. Incidentally, I have not seen a tree sparfow for a very long time. There seemed to be some evidence that both sorts of sparrow have fallen below their peak.
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