112 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



stance, a great crowd assembled to assist their unfor- 

 tunate companion ; but their efforts did more harm than 

 good, for, as it hung halfway down the tile suspended 

 by the thread, they had tried to release it by pulling it, 

 and with the same result as in the other instance, for by 

 the time I reached it, it was half stripped of its feathers, 

 and its little life was almost gone. 



In both these cases I feel convinced that the efforts 

 which were made by the companions of the luckless 

 sparrows were prompted by a feeling of compassion 

 and a real desire to alleviate their misfortunes ; their 

 anxious hurrying to and fro, and the distress expressed 

 in their cries, clearly indicated this. I have seen similar 

 feelings of alarm and sympathy shown by domestic 

 poultry, when on one occasion a cock was flying to the 

 top of a fence in my own yard, but missed his aim, and 

 fluttering down, his head slipped between two of the 

 palings ; the hens hurried to help him, but of course 

 unavailingly, and he would soon have been strangled if 

 I had not gone to the rescue. 



I remember an instance, however, in which the cir- 

 cumstances were similar, but I am not quite so sure 

 of the nature of the feelings which prompted them. 

 In what is called the Dark Wood, in Thoresby Park, 

 there are several old oaks growing on a high bank, from 

 which, on the lower side, the earth has fallen away, and 

 exposed the interlacing roots of the trees. This spot is 

 much resorted to by the fallow deer, who, when the 

 velvet is ready to fall from their newly-grown antlers, 

 delight to hasten the process by rubbing them on these 

 roots. On one occasion a fine buck with a full head 

 was thus engaged when his horns became locked in such 

 a manner as to be inextricable. All his struggles were 



