MELODRAMA AND TRAGEDY 85 
Its naked wings and weak, tender feet showed that it 
could not have wriggled or fluttered along from some 
other nest* No boys were in the neighbourhood* The 
mysterious intruder was not an English Sparrow, for 
he had the more slender bill of his foster parents, 
though not sufficiently fledged for identification* 
He might afford an imaginative naturalist material 
for a pathetic story of a faithless Song Sparrow who 
had deserted his home and family and was pursued 
by them to his new surroundings* The possibilities 
of domestic complications in such a situation are 
infinite* Triumph, revenge, retribution, and disgrace 
could play their several parts* The romantic naturalist 
could picture the warning fate that follows upon the 
breaking of promises and the neglect of duties, but 
the ordinary observer can merely watch and wait* 
The strangely mixed family must have been a serious 
burden to the little mother, but did not seem to 
occasion any distress or annoyance* The next 
visit showed that tragedy had usurped the sphere 
of melodrama* The young stranger's life in his 
new home had been cut short, evidently by a 
predatory cat, and one of the little nestlings was also 
missing* There was no evidence that the mother had 
rejected her foster fledgling* The family without 
the mysterious stranger and depleted was far less 
interesting, still its fortunes were watched with 
sympathetic diligence* But the cat fulfilled its 
