NATURE'S IRONY 245 



carry him out of the sparrow's danger, though the 

 latter, at first, attempts a pursuit, which, however, 

 she soon gives up. 



" i8/& At 6.30 A.M. there is a pair of martins 

 in each of the nests, and the sparrows do not seem 

 to have prevailed. These two pairs of birds, then, 

 must, I suppose, have entered one another's nests, 

 and they appear to be on the friendliest terms, a 

 friendly twitter from the one nest being, often, 

 answered by a friendly twitter from the other. At 

 least it sounds friendly, and there have been these 

 double entries. During the time that the sparrow 

 was besieging the martin's nest, she had all the 

 appearance of real proprietorship. A true griev- 

 ance, a just indignation, was in her every look and 

 motion. She felt so, no doubt, and therein lies the 

 irony of it. Nature is full of irony. 



" 12nd. One or other of the two martins has, 

 more than once, entered the nest usurped by the 

 sparrows, so that I begin to doubt if the latter have 

 really succeeded. As against this, however, I see 

 both the sparrows, on the roof near, and the cock 

 bird has twigs and grass in his bill. Yet, as long as 

 I see them, they do not come to the nest. Never- 

 theless, another nest is now being begun, about a 

 foot from the one they have invaded, and the birds 

 building this, must, I feel sure, be the owners of the 

 latter. 



" zyd. At 7 this morning the building of the 

 new nest is going rapidly forward, but the hen 

 sparrow, with a sinister look, sits near, in the gutter 

 running round the roof. She has a little grass in 

 her bill, and with this, after a while, she flies to the 



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