SPARROWS. 
23 
cause. He therefore placed a ladder, and, on 
mounting, found one of the young ones detained a 
prisoner, by means of a string, or scrap of worsted, 
which formed part of the nest, haying become acci- 
dentally twisted round its leg, Being thus disabled 
from procuring its own living, it had been fed by the 
continued exertions of the parents. 
An unfortunate Sparrow, who had also been made 
prisoner in his own nest, met with a very different 
fate, being actually killed instead of preserved by 
the overzealous kind intentions of his mate. The 
case occurred in the Spring of 1818, in Surry. 
The pair were in search of a place for building 
their nest; and the male bird, finding a tempting 
hole among the tiles of the roof, got into it; unfor- 
tunately, he became entangled in the broken mortar, 
and could not force his way back. The female saw 
his situation, and after flying backwards several 
times, twittering, and apparently in great distress, 
attempted to pull him out. Several birds were 
attracted by the accident, and came fluttering round, 
but were beaten off by the hen Sparrow ; she then 
redoubled her own efforts to get him out, and seizing 
his beak above the nostrils with her own beak, pulled 
it so hard, that she killed him. She did not appear, 
how T ever, aware of the mischief she had done, but 
continued pulling at the dead body of the unfortunate 
bird, with as much perseverance, as if it had been 
alive. She was, at length, driven away by a person, 
who saw the whole transaction, and with some diffi- 
culty extricated the dead bird. Its head was dread- 
fully mangled, and the beak of the hen had evidently 
penetrated the brain. About an hour afterwards, a 
