152 WINGED ROBBERS AND NEST-BUILDERS. 



perches. His flight, like that of the hawks and 

 owls, is gliding and noiseless, but unlike those 

 robbers he lacks the strong talons, and depends on 

 his powerful beak to commit his murders. 



One afternoon a few winters ago, at Hillside, we 

 saw from the window one of the most pitiless bird 

 tragedies of the season. 



" Oh ! do come here and see these two little birds 

 playing in the snow," said one who was always 

 watching for rare, unusual things in Nature, even 

 for four and five-leaved clover. " Aren't they 

 playing?" 



There in the front yard, under our very eyes, a 

 bold butcher in ashen coat and black mask, had 

 flown down and was chasing an English sparrow 

 round the elm trunk and through the lilac bushes. 

 The fun, however, appeared to be all on the side 

 of the larger bird, who evidently before our com- 

 ing had wounded the wing joint of poor finchy. 

 The latter made several vain, painful attempts at 

 flight, skulked between the fence slats, hopped for 

 dear life to the stone wall and crouched beneath 

 the lower rocks. But the endeavor to escape 

 proved ineffectual. The ruthless murderer always 

 on its track held that stout, sharp black knife over 

 his quivering victim, and when at last he had sat- 



