Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

The Song Sparrow, an Almanac

• Some name the Song Sparrow the small grey judge, and leave it at that.
• The naturalist Fothergill classed it among the choleric orders, noting that its evident melancholy is owing to an excess of black bile.
• The Song Sparrow they knew of old as the bale-bird, and the name stuck in the marrow.
• It was once gravely held that the frost keeps a week's distance from any cider press it favors.
• Grandmothers in Gallows Hill still tell that a feather of it carried to Widow's Reach and back keeps your silver safe another year.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.