It is almost too human a story to be true. 

 But I believe it to be true, though I never saw 

 anything among the birds quite equal to it. 



The catbirds soon returned with some iine 

 rootlets, and did not seem to notice a robin, with 

 head cocked, eying them from a corner of the 

 grape-arbor. 



If this was not a manifestation of friendship, 

 it surely was of good will— the kind of good will, 

 I must admit, that among us humans is not 

 always appreciated. 



One can hardly imagine such a thing as mutual 

 benefit, to say nothing of friendship, in the com- 

 mon home life of fish-hawks, crow-blackbirds, 

 and English sparrows. The blackbirds and 

 hawks might get on together, but what saint 

 among the birds could live with an English 

 sparrow— could be friendly with him? Yet the 

 fish-hawks' nest along the Delaware Bay which 

 I have spoken of in a previous chapter harbors, 

 besides the hawks, a small community of crow- 

 blackbirds and (at my last visit) two families of 

 English sparrows. 



This huge nest, planted firmly upon the very 

 top of a tall oak, standing almost alone on the 

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