which towered above that in which the sparrows had taken refuge. The bird's 

 intention of perching in this tree was no sooner expressed by the direction of its 

 flight than the sparrow horde left one hiding-place and fled to another. 



English sparrows, like all other birds, are inquisitive, and when they saw 

 that this bird nightmare, which strangely had chosen a bright day to be abroad, 

 showed no signs of hostility they gathered about it by the hundreds. They 

 hurled all sorts of names at the parrot. Never before had I realized the extent 

 of the sparrow vocabulary. The parrot made its awkward way from tree to tree, 

 followed by all the sparrows resident in that section of the city. The feathered 

 street gamins gave over eating and the delights of fighting for the pure pleasure 

 of swearing at this interrupter of their breakfast. Poll contented herself with 

 croaking at the assembled throng, and with occasionally asking an individual spar- 

 row for a cracker. The sparrows were gaining courage, and apparently were 

 contemplating an attack in force when a boy who knew how to climb trees cap- 

 tured Poll and carried her back to her cage. 



Some birds have become accustomed to many of the appurtenances of civili- 

 zation. Those that have been shot at once, or have seen their kind shot at, know 

 a gun as far as they can see it. They will all but perch on the shoulder of an 

 unarmed man, but will keep a ten-acre lot between them and a man with a breech- 

 loader. Glass, however, is one of man's belongings which the most astute bird 

 as yet fails thoroughly to understand. A window which has light back of it as 

 well as in front of it is a perfect death trap for birds of many species. The 

 oven-bird, sometimes called the golden-crowned thrush, is constantly dashing 

 against window panes, always to its discomfiture and frequently to its death. 

 One of these birds at noon one day brought up against a pane of glass in the 

 window of a great department store on one of the busiest street corners df the 

 city of Chicago. The bird recovered itself, but in its bewilderment it left the 

 window only to fly into the crowded mart through an open door. The oven-bird 

 was caught and caged. Then it promptly and properly died. All caged birds 

 ought to die in self-defense. The .Audubon Society members say that death for 

 the songsters is preferable to imprisonment. There are few bird lovers who will 

 try to gainsay the society's dictum. 



Not long ago a kingfisher tried to fly into the Academy of Sciences through 

 a pane of plate glass. The shock killed the bird. It now stands stuffed with 

 cotton and plaster of paris looking out of the very window against which it hurled 

 itself to death. 



T once found the body of a small hawk which had met death in a peculiar 

 wa\-. I doubt if a stranger fate ever overtook any living creature. I found the 

 hir<l hanging by the upper tendon^ ef its left wing to a bar!) on the strand of a 

 wire fence. Unqucsti<)nal)ly the iiav.k was pur'^uing its quarry when it struck 

 the fence with terrific force. The barb entered the skin and tendons of the wing 

 and held the bird fast. Such was the impetus acquired from the force of the 



51 



