MELODRAMA AND TRAGEDY 85 



Its naked wings and weak, tender feet showed that it 

 could not have wriggled or fluttered along from some 

 other nest* No boys were in the neighbourhood. The 

 mysterious intruder was not an English Sparrow, for 

 he had the more slender bill of his foster parents, 

 though not sufficiently fledged for identification. 



He might afford an imaginative naturalist material 

 for a pathetic story of a faithless Song Sparrow who 

 had deserted his home and family and was pursued 

 by them to his new surroundings. The possibilities 

 of domestic complications in such a situation are 

 infinite* Triumph, revenge, retribution, and disgrace 

 could play their several parts* The romantic naturalist 

 could picture the warning fate that follows upon the 

 breaking of promises and the neglect of duties, but 

 the ordinary observer can merely watch and wait* 

 The strangely mixed family must have been a serious 

 burden to the little mother, but did not seem to 

 occasion any distress or annoyance. The next 

 visit showed that tragedy had usurped the sphere 

 of melodrama* The young stranger's life in his 

 new home had been cut short, evidently by a 

 predatory cat, and one of the little nestlings was also 

 missing* There was no evidence that the mother had 

 rejected her foster fledgling* The family without 

 the mysterious stranger and depleted was far less 

 interesting, still its fortunes were watched with 

 sympathetic diligence* But the cat fulfilled its 



