Psalms 102:7

As a sparrow alone - צפור tsippor, seems to be often used for any small bird, such as the swallow, sparrow, or the like. Bochart supposes the screech owl is intended.

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top - That is, I am "sleepless;" trouble drives sleep from my eyes, and I am kept awake at night - a common effect of grief. The following remarks, copied from the "Land and the Book" (i. 54, 55), will furnish all the illustration needful of this verse. "They are a tame, troublesome, and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you don't want them. They stop up your stove and waterpipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them ... . When one of them has lost its mate - a matter of everyday occurrence - he will sit on the house-top alone, and lament by the hour his sad bereavement."