すずめ
朝起きると鳥の書き声が聞こえると書けば、都市部の人は羨ましいかもしれない。だが、朝一にカラスの鳴き声ではさえない。ヒヨドリのけたたましい鳴き声も、カラスほどでなくとも、まあそれ程嬉しくない。
この時期ではもう鳴かないが、ウグイスが長いこと楽しませてくれた。山家に住む者への恵みと言ってよかろう。山の中ほどは響かないとしても、心地よい目覚めとなる。
近ごろ何故か雀の鳴き声がするようになった。しばらく雀のチュンチュンという鳴き声を聞いていないような気がしていた。実際には鳴いていないことは無かろうから、私が落ち着いて暮らせず気づかなかっただけかもしれない。
ここ数年、昼間でも雀を目にするし、鳴く声も聴けている。数日前仕事場へ行く途中、餌に夢中になっていたのか、自転車で近づくのに気づかなかったようだ。異常接近に気づき、慌てて逃げたので一安心。結構車も通るし、やばいなあという感じ。
私は小鳥を愛でるような子供でなかった。小学校の頃、ざると棒を用意して仕掛けをつくり、米粒をまいて雀を取っていたものだ。今思うと、私の本貫地では雀の数が多かったのか、これでもそれなりに捕れたものである。
何時ごろかは覚えていないけれども、私はエアライフルを撃っており、弾もちょっと大きめを使っていた。もう六十年ほど前の事だったので、免許が必要だったのかどうか覚えていない。
けっこう威力があり、大きめの鳩やモズを撃つことがあったと思う。ところが当たったとしても、場所がよくないとはじかれるし、私の腕前ではうまくいかないことが多かった。
これらが見つからないと雀を狙ったりした。羽に当たるぐらいだと、落ちてくることは無かった。うまくいくと、何羽がまとめて羽をむしり焼いて食べた。
もう十年以上前、おちょぼ稲荷へお参りすることがあった。参道にいろいろな店が軒を並べ、なかなか楽しかった。その中に雀を焼く店があり、のぞくと雀を小さな串にさして焼いていた。懐かしくなって、二三本頼んだと思う。中がまだ冷たい状態で出されたので焼き直してもらった。どこで仕入れているのかは聞かなかったが、冷凍の解けかけのような状態だったので、何故かは知らねど、どこからか輸入しているのではないかと勝手に想像していた。
「雀」という字にも少しばかり因縁がある。正しくは「小」と「隹」の会意だが、私は長年「小」を「少」だと錯覚していた。今なら「少」に見えたのが「隹」の「ノ」であって、「少」では「隹」の形が崩れてしまう。ちゃんと習っていない人のあるあるである。
小さな鳥と言えば他にもいろいろあるだろうに、本邦でなぜスズメを指すようになったのか興味深い。古代中国においては「今有五雀」（『九章算術』方程・０９）などから、幾種類かあったようだが、漢代あたりでは小鳥一般を指すようだ。
「雀」は我々の身近にいて、その可愛い姿と言い鳴き声と言い、今となっては心揺さぶられる鳥である。 髭じいさん
Sparrow
If I were to write that I can hear the sound of birds when I wake up in the morning, people living in cities might be envious. But it’s not so happy that the first sound in the morning is from a crow. The sound of a brown-eared bulbul is not as loud as a crow, but it’s not that pleasant either.
Although the Japanese bush warblers are no longer singing at this time of year, they have entertained us for a long time. It is a blessing for those who live in the countryside. Even though their singing does not resonate as much as in the mountains, it makes me wake up pleasantly.
Recently, for some reason, I have been hearing sparrows chirping. I felt like I hadn’t heard them chirping for a while. In reality, they probably weren’t chirping at all, so maybe I just wasn’t feeling at ease and didn’t notice.
In recent years, I have seen sparrows even during the day and heard them chirping. A few days ago, on my way to work, a sparrow was so engrossed in feeding that it didn’t seem to notice my approaching on a bicycle. I was relieved when it noticed the unusual approach and ran away in a panic. There were quite a few cars passing by, so I felt like it was dangerous.
I was not the kind of child who loved small birds. When I was in elementary school, I used to make a trap using a sieve and a stick, and scatter rice grains to catch sparrows. Thinking back, there must have been a lot of sparrows in my hometown, so I was able to catch a fair number of them with this.
I can’t remember when, but I was shooting an air rifle, using some larger bullets. This was about sixty years ago, so I can’t remember if I needed a license or not.
It was quite powerful, and I think I was able to shoot some larger pigeons and shrikes. However, even if I managed to hit them, if the shot was not taken in the right spot, they would bounce off, and with my skill level it was often not enough.
If I couldn’t find these, I would try to target sparrows. I hitting the feathers, they wouldn’t fall. Luckily, I would pluck out the feathers of several birds at once, roast them, and eat them.
More than ten years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Ochobo Inari Shrine. There were many different shops lined up along the approach to the shrine, which was quite fun. Among them was a shop that grilled sparrows, and when I looked inside, I saw them grilling sparrows on small skewers. I was feeling nostalgic, so I ordered a couple of them. They were served to me while still cold inside, so I had them re-grilled. I didn’t ask where they got them, but they looked like they were just thawing from the freezer, so I assumed they were imported from somewhere, although I don’t know why.
The character for “雀 sparrow also has a bit of a connection to me. It is actually a combination of “小 small” and “隹 bird”, but for many years I had the misconception that “小 small” was “少 few”. Now I see it as “ノ” in “隹”, otherwise the shape of “隹” looks odd. This is something that happens to people who haven’t learned properly.
There are many other small birds, so it is interesting to know why it came to mean sparrows in Japan. In ancient China, there seem to have been several types of sparrows, as seen in the passage “Now there are five sparrows” (“Nine Chapters on Mathematics”, Formulas, 09), but in the Han dynasty it seems to have meant small birds in general.
Sparrows are close to us, and their cute appearance and cries have made them a heart-warming bird.
Higejiisan
