THE BIRD OF THE STREET. 197 



a train of courtiers wherever he went, though 

 they did not make quite so much noise about it 

 as at first. 



The household became as keenly interested 

 as the birds in the doings of the pretty fellow. 

 All through the winter he appeared on the 

 mild days, running and bounding over the tall 

 maples. We saw him gather grass and carry 

 it off in great bundles in his mouth to make a 

 bed, and after an unusually cold season he spent 

 part of two days in removing his residence 

 from an ornamental pile of stones in a neigh- 

 bor's yard to warmer quarters he had discov- 

 ered under the house. He had evidently col- 

 lected a quantity of stores of some sort. No 

 doubt as soon as spring opened he would vary 

 his diet with fresh eggs, but as I left the vicin- 

 ity I did not have opportunity to observe 

 whether the sparrow family suffered from him, 

 though I noticed that he had changed his 

 dwelling to the hole in the maple already de- 

 scribed as the scene of a family broil. 



I did, however, have one more glimpse of the 

 squirrel quite late in the summer, although at a 

 distance of half a mile from the scene of the 

 above-mentioned exploits. Being one day at- 

 tracted to a window by the familiar sound of a 

 sparrow turmoil, I saw the birds of the neigh- 

 borhood repeating the performance I had ob- 



