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 
