CORRESPONDENCE 205 



"January n, 1874. 



" MY DEAR SIR, The welfare of small birds must 

 seem to many people a very trivial matter, and those 

 who take an interest in them be looked upon as 

 being foolish, as there is no money or gain to be 

 made out of them ; but I am sure, from your kind- 

 ness, you will not think us troublesome in writing 

 to tell you that we recovered our lost Hawk the day 

 before yesterday, and that he was as much delighted 

 to see us as we were to see him. After being lost 

 about ten days he alighted on a window-sill, and 

 was taken in by some workmen, who treated him 

 kindly, and brought him to us in consequence of 

 a second edition of hand-bills we had printed a few 

 days before. Although our perseverance might be 

 much ridiculed, it has been well rewarded, and our 

 ' Peter ' has found in ' Pauline ' a very amiable wife, 

 so that the curtain descends on a happy conclusion 

 of the drama. The bird was caught about a mile 

 and a half away," &c., &c., &c. " C. C. B." 



Altough the conclusion was thus far a happy one, 

 the end was not yet. After writing a short note to 

 say that the Hawks were going on satisfactorily, 

 and that people would hardly credit their romantic 

 history, the gallant captain (for such he was) wrote 

 yet another after little more than a month, giving 

 the sad news of the death of " Pauline." His last 

 words were : " One consolation is, that it was not 

 neglected, and was never during its illness out of 



