Animal Anecdotes 
Harry Dino ~ 
Biddy was caught suspended in the air. 
window. It appears that the sparrow in question 
had been hatched in a barber’s shop by a canary, 
who taught him to sing in a most unsparrowlike 
way. An accident, however, to the cage in which 
he was kept was the cause of his escape from 
captivity, and from this date his adventures 
may be said to have begun. 
First of all he made a nest of twigs, the nearest 
approach he could find to the wicker-basket nest of 
his foster parents ; then he made love to a biddy 
sparrow and conducted her in triumph to the nest 
he had built. But, alas! she would have none of 
it; after a hasty look round, she took hold of a twig 
and threw it overboard, to show her disapproval, 
then flew away and remained absolutely deaf to 
all his entreaties to return. Nothing daunted, 
the cock set to work to demolish the nest he had 
so carefully made—the work of a week—and 
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before long nothing remained of it save 
a pile of sticks heaped up on the ground 
below. Next day he returned once 
more with Biddy, who, finding the nest 
demolished, expressed her satisfaction 
and at once began to help him make 
another—this time of hay. 
The days went on and egg after egg 
was added to the new nest, till at 
last there were five. Then it occurred 
to Mr. Thompson to try a little ex- 
periment. Watching his chance, late 
one evening he dropped a marble 
mto the nest. ‘What happened at 
once,” he says, “I do not know,” but 
‘| early the next morning he saw these 
two sparrows locked in fierce combat, 
hammering and pecking at one another 
in deadly earnest. That afternoon he 
| found below the nest not only the 
intrusive marble, but also the remains 
of the five eggs. There was evidently 
neither luck nor peace in the old nest, 
and the two (having decided to forgct 
the past) agreed to abandon it and hit 
upon the somewhat original idea of 
| building a nest on the top of an electric 
| light. This, however, was also doomed 
| to failure, though not until a week’s 
labour had been expended on it. The 
third site chosen was the high fork of 
an elm tree. This time Biddy decided 
to use horsehair wherewith to line her nest; 
but, alas! the nest was all but finished when 
she put her head through one of those dangerous 
hair nooses she had so skilfully made and was 
caught suspended in the air. The more she 
struggled the tighter became the noose. Her 
mate did all he could to release her, but only 
made matters worse, till at last Biddy hung 
stiff and silent, and the cock sparrow knew that 
all was over. 
He had never been very alert; he was always 
venturesome and heedless, and now he became 
more so. One day he was run over by a bicycle 
and his wing got injured; he managed to hop 
away, but was eventually captured by a little 
girl, and now he is restored to his original owner 
and will probably end his days where he began 
them—in a canary cage. 
[N.B.—The above story is given in greater detail in Mr. Seton-Thompson’s charming book, “ Lives of tho 
Hunted,” the Hnglish edition of which is published by Mr. David Nutt, who also publishes the same autho’s 
“Wild Animals I have known.” 
praise them too highly. 
Both books contain such charming stories of animal life that it is impossible to 
No lover of animals can fail to enjoy reading these fascinating volumes of true stories.] 
