154 Bird Comrades 



going along the street, a lot of hoodlums should take to 

 gibing and hooting at you? 



Were there ever such pesky, ill-mannered citizens as 

 the English sparrows? Here comes a downy woodpecker, 

 or a cardinal, or a rose-breasted grosbeak to town, flitting 

 about the trees of my yard, gathering goodies among the 

 leaves and twigs, and perhaps piping a little aria at inter- 

 vals, congratulating himself on having found a pleasant, 

 quiet place, when, lo! a gang of English sparrows crowd 

 around him, peering at him now with one eye, now with 

 the other, canting their heads in their impertinent way, 

 bowing and scraping and blinking, and for all the world 

 seeming to make such derisive remarks as, " Oh, what a 

 fine fellow! Quite stuck-up, ain't he? Isn't that a stylish 

 topknot, though ? He ! he ! he ! Look ! he wears a rose 

 on his shirt bosom! Isn't he a dandy? Ge! ge! gah! gah!" 

 By and by the visitor can stand the racket and the 

 mockery no longer ; and so he steals away, resolved never 

 again to go to that place to be insulted. I have repeat- 

 edly been witness of just such occurrences. 



Early in the spring a robin began to build her nest in 

 the middle story of one of my maple trees. The whole 

 process was narrowly watched by the noisy, hectoring 

 sparrows. They gathered about her, prying and bob- 

 bing and jostling and chirping, staring at her like a lot 

 of bumpkins when she leaped into the half -finished cup 

 and molded her building material with her ruddy bosom. 

 They seemed to be saying jeeringly; " Isn't that a funny 

 way for a bird to build a house? Hay! hay! hay!" The 



