THE OOLOGIST. 



149 



sweeping round in circles twittering in- 

 cessantly can make considerable hub- 

 bub. Every now and then a Swallow 

 would dip down and strike at a fema.le 

 English Sparrow which was dangling 

 below a nest, from the mouth of which 

 it appeared to be suspended. Some- 

 times the Sparrow would squirm as 

 violently as a bird could in so disadvan- 

 tageous a position, twirling back and 

 forth. In about three-quarters of an 

 hour, by guess.when I came from milk- 

 ing the bird was dead. Meanwhile, the 

 Swallows hushed by the coming night, 

 had gi'adually sunk to rest, and all was 

 silent in the little hanging village un- 

 der the eaves. I put a ladder against 

 the barn and went up to make an ex- 

 amination — to hold my inquest. Ver- 

 dict, death caused by a horse-hair run- 

 ning noose, whether the result of acci- 

 dent or otherwise, not determined. 



Now here was a pretty clear case of 

 circumstantial evidence, so everybody 

 thought, but the writer, he did not try 

 to explain it then — couldnt't. This is 

 the way it seemed to stand: Bird had 

 evidently been troubling the Swallows, 

 trying to appropriate the nest; there 

 had been an unusual commotion in town; 

 here was the Sparrow hung by the 

 neck, dead. What would the most nat- 

 ural conclusion be, as drawn from such 

 evidence? What might an average 

 jury say after an impressive address by 

 an eloquent judge? But I waited my 

 conclusion till after further examina- 

 tion. Such a scene would furnish suf- 

 ficient material for a nice live article at 

 the hands of most any reporter. I 

 took the nest down. Now for the rev- 

 elations! It contained two dead Swal- 

 lows and three English Sparrow eggs. 

 Here is more evidence: Time for the 

 Swallows to have plotted and planned. 

 But an examination of the horse-hair 

 puts an entii'ely different face on the 

 whole matter. 



This is where the intei'est centers and 

 our conckisions hinge: The two ends 



of the horse-hair were built into the 

 mud of the interior of the nest while it 

 was yet soft. The hair by chance had 

 been looped around the tube entrance 

 in the form of a running-noose. From . 

 day to day the Swallow had passed in 

 and out through this death tx'ap, and 

 even the Sparrow had escaped some- 

 times, but at last was overtaken by this 

 accidental retribution. To an observer 

 on the ground this conclusion, unless 

 he were extremely shrewd, would prob- 

 ably never occur. It is so easy to reach 

 such different conclusions by the same 

 circumstances if you have left out just 

 one little point. We must not allow 

 our judgments to be warped by a few 

 apparent facts tending by way of con- 

 venient and glittering generalizations 

 to startling conclusions. We must be- 

 lieve nothing till we see it all the way 

 through— must take nothing on trust. 

 On such cases we must be attorney on 

 both sides, witnesses, judge and jury. 

 No wonder if we have to proceed with 

 care and with not too much haste. 



A few weeks after the tragedy record- 

 ed above I discoved ayoungEave Swal- 

 low dangling from a nest around at the 

 west side of the barn. It had been dead 

 a long time evidently and was all dried 

 up. I set up a ladder and went up to 

 get the empty nest and find out how 

 the accident happered. While I was 

 carefully working at the nest high over 

 my head, it suddenly crumbled, and I 

 was baptized with sand and mud, — in 

 my eyes, and ears, and hair, and down 

 my neck — so I never knew the truth at 

 the bottom of that mystery. But doubt- 

 less the half-fledged Swallow had be- 

 come tangled in the hair wherewith 

 the nest was lined, and in its struggles 

 to get free had fallen from the nest. 

 There are a good many of these acci- 

 dental deaths, among birds as the nat- 

 uralist knows, who is abroad much and 

 at all seasons. 



Eknest W. Vickers. 

 Ellsworth, O. 



