10 MARCH 1877, Page 3

ft is curious to hear What efforts the Xew Englanders

make to acelimatiee the English sparrow, and how very shy that little bird is of its Yankee hosts. In Massachusetts they constantly furnish the sparrows with ready-made nests and boxes, placed in the trees for their convenience, and yet they are very reluctant guests. "A Sentimental American," in the Times the other day, complained bitterly that in spite of all he had done for the sparrow he could not keep it ; and Ansa Rye, in a letter to the same journal published yesterday, gives us a clue to the creature's reluctance to stay. A letter to Miss Rye, dated Niagara, January 29th last, mentions the arrival of a flock of sparrows there in British territory. Evidently the sparrow does not like a Repub- lican Constitution ; and not being able to cress the Atlantic, emigrates to the nearest point of British territory, to be under the dominion of Lord Dufferin. It prefers a Governor-General to a President, and as Lord Dufferin himself pointed out the other day, it is very doubtful whether a good many Americans, if they could afford to tell the truth, would not agree completely with the sparrow.