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| Tuesday, 30 November 2004 |
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The house sparrow's earthly days are numbered by S. Francis Perera Who killed cock-robin? Of course the story is apocryphal, but it shows the extent to which this poor bird is slandered. In fact, owing to the fact that man has wrought havoc on his environment the house sparrow's earthly days are numbered. One of the tragedies of this contemporary world is the disappearance from time to time of some species of animal or bird from the face of the earth. The concurrence of a number of causes is responsible for their extinction. At the moment tragedy has almost overtaken the house-sparrow; it is only a matter of time before it will be extinct and its name struck off the zoological register. A few conservationists will mourn its passing away; they will say the world is poorer by the loss. The great majority of our fellowmen, however, will wonder why such a pother has to be made over a mere sparrow. Surely, they will say, it is not going to upset the world economy. For the moment let us ignore what hoi-poloi have to say and contemplate on the approaching disaster. In this matter we seem to have the divine sanction. For does not the Bible say that even the fall of a sparrow is taken note of by its Creator. In the course of his desultory peregrinations the present writer, who calls himself an amateur conservationist, noticed that the numbers of sparrows is fast decreasing. How to get to the bottom of the matter was his problem. He inquired from the 'experts' at the Wildlife Department and at the university. Rightly or wrongly he had the feeling that these men lived in ivory-towers and were not cognizant of the changes taking place in the realms of flora and fauna. Either they were ignorant or did not want to share their knowledge with an 'outsider'. They treated the matter in a cavalier manner. Snobbery dies hard. Undaunted he set out to engage himself in a solo investigation. Here is presented the garnered gleanings in a not so familiar field. But before presenting the causes that are hastening the house-sparrow to his doom it behoves us to recall the halycian days when men and these winged mites lives in mutual amity. In those days of not so very long ago, a house where there wasn't a sparrow's nest was the exception than the rule. Under the eaves of houses, or in boxes and pots hung on walls there would be untidy nests built with hay or dry leaves. The cock-sparrow is an amorous mate, and the hen-sparrow a prolific layer. Unlike other birds they do not have elaborate ritual preceding the act of copulation. A roof, the ground or a log - just anywhere - is good enough for the function. The twinkling of an eye is the duration of the time taken for the action, but it is repeated about half a dozen times. All the year round, in and out of season, the hen has a brood of fledglings in the nest. You will hear the little ones cheep and chirp all day, for they want their maws to be filled. They have a voracious appetite and mother and father flit in and out of the nest carrying grub or grain. Whatever be the function they may be engaged in - whether feeding, preening, fighting, copulating or keeping watch - the sparrows do not stop twittering and their twitter is so soothing to the ear. Some people taking an anthropomorphic view of the matter say the sparrow lives to entertain man. The male as has been hinted above is amorous. Strange that a bird with so much sexual potency is monogamous. Sparrows prefer to go foraging in a flock. You will see them haunting the vicinity of godowns where grain is stored. In the process of transferring bags from the store to lorries workmen spill much grain. Indifferent to the fact that the men keep shuttling from the stores to the lorry the sparrows descend on the ground and gorge themselves with the rice or other grain strewn on the ground. Or sparrows will invade a field with lush grass, and hanging on to stalks will strip them off the seeds. They will fly back to their nests to re-gurgitate the stuff down the throats of their young ones. Pugnacity For pugnacity, I think the cock sparrow does not have its equal among other birds of his size. Let a cat, a crow, a rat-snake or hedge snake wander into its territory and he goes into action. It will fly straight like an arrow and dive down to ground level to reach the intruder which it will strike with incredible ferocity. The intruder writhing in pain beats a hasty retreat. The only exception is the rat-snake. It will fulfil its 'mission' even if the sparrow were to flay it alive. The rat-snake will coil round the pot in which the nest is and feast on the fledglings. The only enemies the sparrow will spare are boys armed with catapults or pellet-guns. The harm which these unregenerate brats cause the sparrows, is in the words of the poet Blake, "enough to put high heaven in a rage." World literature is all the richer for the references made to the sparrow in both ancient and modern classics. The Bible, the Hithopadesa, the Illiad and the Odyssey all mention sparrows. In their writings authors seem to reflect the beliefs on sparrows held by common folk. It is almost universally believed that sparrows are lovable in spite, or may be because of being perky. We all can certainly vouch for their lovability. Hasn't a sparrow, at least once perched on our shoulder to escape from a predator, or have eaten crumbs out of your palms? The sparrows mentioned in the Bible as well as in Home's classics show them up as creatures worthy of being loved and admired. On the other hand the perky nature of the sparrow is beautifully illustrated in Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem. 'The Parliament of Fowls. At this avian parliament the sparrow is eloquent and loquacious, so much so that the other birds cannot get in a word even edge ways. Nor has mural art failed to depict the sparrow. On the walls of an Egyptian pyramid a man is shown hurling a net at a flock of sparrows that are rising to the air. Probably sparrows were considered a delicacy by Egyptians. A plausible guess is that the sparrows learned to associate with man from the time man was a cave-dweller. Archaeologists have found dry leave and feathers choking cavities and crevices in the cave walls in Spain and southern France. It is from these distant times that man's ears have been attuned to the lilting music of sparrow song. Fate Man is to be held culpable for the sad fate that has befallen the sparrow. He has made the world around him not only unsuitable to himself, but also to the lesser creatures. Man's tinkering with the workings of nature has made vegetation to wilt and wither, the strong animals to flee and the weaker ones to perish. At first the house-sparrow was able to absorb the shocks and violent changes brought about by man. It now appears that saturation point has been reached. Daphne du Maurier, the distinguished novelist, in her science - fiction tale. The birds, envisages a time when all winged creatures will form a front to curb man's propensities to interfere with nature in a manner detrimental to all living things. But quick-witted man will anticipate them and complete his work of destruction before the avian front is formed. The Buddha's admonitions to live in accordance with nature have fallen on deaf ears! In spite of being grounded on the basics of sanitary science, in spite of possessing the facilities to make his surroundings sanitarily sound, man is perverse enough to be the dirtiest, filthiest and the loathsome of all creatures. Men have been known to outmatch the skunk in stench, the pig is being plastered with filth, and a rotting carcass in being vermin infested. No other creature messes his shelter, pollutes his surrounding and violates the silence and serenity of the atmosphere as does the human biped. There is a fear that man will be wiped out by the lethal weapons of his own invention. To that fear is now added another, that man will be suffocated by the maire of the muck of his own making. Whirlgig The great seers assure us that one thing from which man cannot be saved is from himself. Let us hope against hope that the whirlgig of time will present him with the means of overcoming the ultimate catastrophe. If he does overcome it, then not only the house-sparrow, but also the other birds and animals doomed to vanish will be assured of survival. Man's surroundings, what with the spraying of insecticides, pesticides and germicides is no more a fit terrain for sparrows to hop about seeking grain and crumbs, or to wallow in the sand by way of delousing themselves. The grain spilt there will not be fit for consumption. The water in puddles after a shower will have absorbed the poison chemicals, and sparrows will scrupulously abstain from dipping themselves in this contaminated water. Grass seeds are relished by sparrows, but grass will not grow on soil suffused with poison. Thus it is clear that man's environment is no more suitable for sparrows to thrive. In fact it is open to question whether this chemically tarnished earth is any more suitable for man himself. Absorbed The foregoing are the major causes that are hastening the day of the sparrows end. But they are by no means the only ones. Children more than adults had, in the past, been the sparrow's closest associates. It is they more than their parents who took the trouble to hang pots or nail boxes to walls for sparrows to nest in. But the children of the present day are so absorbed with their schoolwork or with private tuition that they don't find the time for so innocent a diversion as bird watching. Besides parents consider it a waste of time for children to be engaged in an avocation of this nature. They say it smacks of frivolity. Under these circumstances it is quite understandable that children will distance themselves from the world of nature. Children in rural regions show shocking ignorance of the names of birds and plants even of their immediate surroundings. They see things without noticing them. |
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