364 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



more severely. But it seemed to have the desired effect. Young 

 sparrow betook himself to the woods and I am sure never ventured to 

 put so much as his bill inside the old home again. 



This last spring the same pair of sparrows, presumably, made their 

 nest inside the same blinds, leaving the old nest deserted and making 

 a fresh one at the opposite end of the window. The mother had been 

 setting on the eggs for a week or ten days when the family suddenly 

 had an unusual burden put upon them. It came about this way. 

 Across the street a pair of sparrows had built a nest beneath the eaves 

 of a house, and the boy who owned the family who rented the house, 

 was amusing himself with his sling-shot when he accidentally shot a 

 stone at the nest and down it came with three half-grown birds in it. 

 The weetlings were uninjured, but what to do with them was a prob- 

 lem, for the eaves were out of reach of the longest ladder in the neigh- 

 borhood and there was no possible way of getting the nest back. The 

 boy, Charlie, ran in great. excitement across the way to his friend An- 

 drew, the boy who owned the family who lived in our house, to get the 

 advice which one boy is sure to have for another- Andrew remember- 

 ed the teacher at school telling them that even English sparrows would 

 care for another bird's children if placed in their nest, and they immed- 

 iately decided to try the experiment. They carefully brought the bird- 

 lings from across the way and carried them upstairs, and cautiously 

 opening the window put them gently into the nest. The parent birds 

 were away for a few moments, but when they came back two more 

 astonished or frightened birds you never saw. They flew out quickly 

 and stayed in the oak tree a long time, twittering and chirping in ex- 

 citement, and no doubt consulting together what was best to be done, 

 and trying to explain this strange phenomenon — a family of bird babies 

 dropped into their nest without the preliminary of being hatched. Fin- 

 ally the mother left the tree, the father staying to keep watch that no 

 other unheard of thing happened to disturb the peace of their home. In 

 a few minutes she was back, bringing another female bird with her. 

 Was it the mother of the little stranger, or an old maid aunt of the 

 family who stood ready for emergencies? Not being on intimate 

 enough terms with them to ask we could not tell, whoever she was she 

 understood the necessities of the situation, and presently all three were 

 hard at work trying to fill the apparently bottomless capacities of those 

 little ones. Day after day the three cared for them till they were well 

 grown and ready to fly, and then, when they had been properly taught 

 that greatest of bird accomplishments, and had gone away to the wood- 

 land, the strange lady sparrow disappeared also. 



Meanwhile the eggs in the nest had been kept warm and in proper 

 condition, possibly by the young birds' constant presence, for a week 

 or so after the stranger birdlings had been taught to fly they hatched 

 out and Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow had another set of mouths to feed, and 

 another brood to teach to fly and to be well mannered and obedient. 



