20 STOEIES ABOUT BIEDS. 



with the exploit ; but, after a few minutes, I 

 was seized with horror, at having in a sportive » 

 way Idlled an innocent creature, while she was 

 careful for her young. I beheld her lying 

 dead, and thought these young ones, for whom 

 she had been so careful, must now perish for 

 want of their mother to nourish them ; and 

 after some painful considerations on the sub- 

 ject, I climbed the tree, took all the young 

 birds and killed them ; supposing that better 

 than to leave them to pine away and die mis- 

 erably ; and I believed, in this case, that Scrip- 

 ture proverb was fulfilled, ' The tender mercies 

 of the wicked are cruel.' I then went on my 

 errand, but for some hours could think of lit- 

 tle else but the cruelties I had committed, and 

 was much troubled." My young friends need 

 hardly be told that this man never killed one 

 of these sweet songsters again. 



Jesse, in his " Tales of Animal Instinct," 

 mentions a singular proof of the robin's love 

 for its young. " A gentleman," he says, " in 

 my neighborhood, had directed one of his 

 wagons to be packed Avith sundry boxes, in- 

 tending to go with it to Worthing, a place at 

 some distance from his residence. For some 

 time his going was delayed, and he directed 

 that the wagon should be placed in a shed in 



