THE SPARROW. 495 



a noise like thunder, and, descending on the length of road before 

 me, covered it and all the fences completely with black ; and 

 when they again rose, and, after a few evolutions, descended on 

 the skirts of the high timbered woods, they produced a most sin- 

 gular and striking effect, the whole trees, for a considerable ex- 

 tent, seeming as if hung in mourning ; their notes and screaming 

 the mean while resembling the distant sound of a great cataract, 

 but in more musical cadence, swelling and dying away on the ear 

 according to the fluctuations of the breeze." 



It is evident that such vast multitudes of birds can not all 

 have been nurtured in the interstices of osprey nests. Indeed, 

 the generality of the birds build in tall trees, usually associating 

 together, so that fifteen or twenty nests are made in the same 

 tree. The nests are well and carefully made of mud, roots, and 

 grasses, about four inches in depth, and warmly lined with horse- 

 hair and very fine grasses. The fact that the bird possesses this 

 capability of nest-building gives more interest to the occasional 

 habit of sharing its home with the osprey, a privilege of which it 

 seems to avail itself whenever an osprey's nest is within reach. 



The color of this bird appears at a little distance to be black, 

 but is, in reality, a very deep purple, changing in different lights 

 to green, violet, and copper, and having a glossy sheen like that 

 of satin. 



• • 



Our little friend the Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is occasion- 

 ally a parasite, following to some extent the custom of the purple 

 grakle, though it does not select a bird of prey for its companion. 



On the Continent, the common Stork builds largely, and in 

 several countries is protected by general consent, the slaughter 

 of a stork, or the destruction of its nest and eggs, being visited 

 with a heavy fine. In consequence of this immunity, the Stork 

 is very tame, building upon houses as freely as does the martin, 

 and being considered as a bringer of good luck when it does so. 



Any disused chimney is sure to have a stork's nest upon the 

 top, and so is a pillar, or any ruin. The nest of the stork bears 

 a general resemblance to that of the osprey, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the sea-weed, is made of similar materials. It is of huge 

 dimensions, and chiefly consists of sticks and reeds, heaped to- 

 gether without much arrangement, and having on the top a 

 slight depression, in which the eggs are laid. As in the case 

 with the osprey nest, considerable interstices are left between the 



