28 OCTOBER 1893, Page 15

SPARROWS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sin,—Do not your correspondents give the sparrows and canaries credit for a great amount of reasoning-power, when they suppose the birds think they see themselves in the mirror ? Is it not far more likely that they imagine they see another bird in the glass ? I once had a canary which sang like a, mad thing at its own reflection, which it would scarcely have done if it had known the true state of affairs.—I am, Sir, &a., C. P.