NEW GLEANINGS IN OLD FIELDS 



meanor. Then let men be detailed to break them up. 

 As long as the nest is untouched, killing the birds is 

 of little avail. A friend of mine, a well-known orni- 

 thologist, told me that one summer he and his wife 

 took for the season a house in a small town not far 

 from Boston. There were two sparrows' nests in 

 the cavities of two fruit trees in the garden. At once 

 he opened war upon the parent birds. He shot one 

 of them. In two hours the male or female, whichever 

 it was, had another mate. He continued the shoot- 

 ing. Whenever a bird showed itself about either nest 

 it was shot. In consequence the birds became very- 

 wild and shrewd, till he was compelled to fire from 

 a crack in the door. But he kept up the warfare 

 till he had killed sixty-two birds about those nests, 

 and yet from each cavity a brood of young birds 

 came forth. I suppose there were eggs or young in 

 the nest when my friend appeared upon the scene, 

 and that he did not in any one day kill both the par- 

 ent birds. Had he done so, it is stiU a question 

 whether the young would have been allowed to per- 

 ish. Their cries would probably have attracted other 

 birds. 



The parental instinct is strong in most creatures. 

 Birds as well as animals will sometimes adopt the 

 young of others. I have been told of a bluebird that 

 took it upon himself to help feed some young vireos 

 in a nest near his own, and of a house wren that 

 carried food to some young robins. 

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