* * *
11. How wonderful is that instinct by which the bird of passage performs
its annual migration! But how still more wonderful is it when the bird,
after its voyage of thousands of miles has been performed, and new lands
visited, returns to the precise window or eaves where, the summer before,
it first enjoyed existence! And yet, such is unquestionably the fact.
12. Four brothers had watched with indignation the felonious attempts of a
sparrow to possess himself of the nest of a house martin, in which lay its
young brood of four unfledged birds.
13. The little fellows considered themselves as champions for the bird
which had come over land and sea, and chosen its shelter under their
mother's roof. They therefore marshaled themselves with blowguns, to
execute summary vengeance; but their well-meant endeavors brought
destruction upon the mud-built domicile they wished to defend. Their
artillery loosened the foundations, and down it came, precipitating its
four little inmates to the ground. The mother of the children, Good
Samaritan-like, replaced the little outcasts in their nest, and set it in
the open window of an unoccupied chamber.
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