FRIENDLY MINISTRATIONS. 215 



forsaken by the parent birds, or the nests have 7 been torn 

 out by some thoughtless or ruthless hand.' 



The eggs of the Sparrow are white, spotted and streaked 

 with ash colour and dusky brown. The first batch usually 

 consists of five or six, and two other sets are frequently 

 produced in a season. The old birds manifest great attach- 

 ment for their young : the following incident well illustrates 

 this trait of their character. In a foot note in the first 

 volume of the t Zoological Journal,' it is stated that a pair 

 of Sparrows which had built in a thatch roof of a house at 

 Poole, were observed to continue their regular visits to the 

 nest long after the time when the young birds take flight. 

 This unusual circumstance continued throughout the year ; 

 and in the winter, a gentleman who had all along observed 

 them, determined on investigating its cause. He therefore 

 mounted a ladder, and found one of the young ones detained 

 a prisoner, by means of a piece of string or worsted, which 

 formed part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted 

 round the leg. Being thus incapacitated for procuring its 

 own sustenance, it had been fed by the continual exertions 

 of its parents. Of a somewhat similar character is the 

 incident recorded below, only that in this case the interest 

 is heightened by the circumstance that the ruling motive 

 could not have been love of offspring. During the time 

 that Glasgow Cathedral was undergoing repairs and reno- 

 vations, the workmen engaged had observed an unusual 

 concourse of Sparrows always coming regularly to a hole 

 in one of the slanting walls of the old Consistory Court, 

 which was being taken down, and holding a great ado, 

 * cheeping and chirping,' and apparently feeding some birds 

 within. For a brief space of time this was thought nothing 

 of, as it was known the young brood were just about flying ; 

 and it was imagined that it might be some of these, not so 

 strong as the others, whom the parents were feeding. The 

 meetings being continued, however, a gentleman in the 

 neighbourhood induced the men to get a ladder, and ex- 

 amine the cause of all those noisy doings; when it was 

 found that the female Sparrow, after all her brood had left 

 her, had got so warped about the leg with some of the 

 threads composing her nest, that it was impossible for 



