70 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



compartment who had evidently noticed the proceeding, 

 and the coveted feather was carried away. Instead of 

 carrying the stolen article to her own nest, she made off 

 with the feather to a neighboring tree, where she se- 

 curely fastened it, in an inconspicuous place, upon and 

 between two twigs. There she left it and returned 

 home. Pretty soon the loser came back with a straw 

 to add to his nest. Discovering his loss, he issued out, 

 and with many an angry expostulation, vowed ven- 

 geance upon the despoiler of his home. His first 

 demonstration was to visit his next door neighbor, but 

 finding no trace of the pilfered feather, somewhat per- 

 plexed, he retired, and desisting from further attempts 

 at discovery, flew away in quest of another. The 

 guilty party, after innocently and loudly demanding a 

 reason for this ungentlemanly intrusion in order to turn 

 suspicion away from herself, as soon as her offended 

 neighbor had got well out of sight, flew to the tree, 

 seized the stolen feather, and bore it triumphantly to 

 her own nest. 



Mr. Elliott, in his Birds of North America, mentions 

 a rather curious incident, which goes far to show the 

 familiar and curious disposition of the sparrow. It 

 savors somewhat of the ludicrous, but is sufficiently in- 

 teresting to be given. In August, 1868, while passing 

 by an undertaker's shop in Jersey City, his attention 

 was attracted to one of these birds which was hopping 

 very quietly about in a glass window that had been 

 left open, intently inspecting the caskets on exhibition, 

 doubtless with the view of selecting one in which to 

 construct a nest. 



A writer, in the "Scientific American" for August 11, 

 1877, mentions a few observations concerning these 



