BY OLIVE THORN E MILLER. 67 



old one in two ways : first, the old one, after the labours 

 of bringing up a brood or two, was worn and ragged, 

 while the new-comer was fresh as a daisy, and fluffy and 

 young-looking as a nestling ; second, she approached the 

 nest in a different way. It is true of sparrows, however 

 it may be with other birds, that each one has his special 

 alighting-places, a certain twig where he first settles, and 

 certain others on which, as a flight of steps, he invariably 

 proceeds to his nest. The mother of the dead infant 

 always came to the home from the right side, and her 

 grim tyrant does so still, but the bride selected a convenient 

 series of twigs on the left side. 



It is now four or five days since the crime was com- 

 mitted, and although the new spouse is perfectly at home 

 and settled, peace, even to the extent that a sparrow 

 enjoys it, is still a stranger to the spruce-tree nest. I 

 think it is haunted by the discarded mate. Certainly a 

 sparrow, that I have no doubt is she, comes to the neigh- 

 bourhood, and scolds the meek-looking bride and her 

 spouse in most savage fashion. No one resents her per- 

 formance, and after a moment she goes away. 



The sparrow is an autocrat, especially addicted to 

 divorcing his partner upon the smallest pretext. I have 

 elsewhere chronicled two sm.all dramas in sparrow life 

 which I watched from beginning to end. The actors in 

 the first were a pair living in a hole in a maple-tree before 

 my window. For some undiscoverable reason the grace- 

 less head of the household decided to make a change in 

 his domestic arrangements, and to begin by divorce. In 

 that case the female had the advantage, since the home 

 was not an open nest, but a castle. She had possession 

 and kept it for two days, in spite of violent vituperation 

 and the most threatening manner. In this case, also, I 



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