A Brave Bird by Sel.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 43.

A Brave Bird.

By Sel.

While a party of ladies were chatting on a piazza at Clifton, N. J., their attention was attracted by the swift descent of a sparrow hawk. A moment later, the pirate of the air was seen soaring upward with a poor little bird in its talons. The ladies were not the only spectators of the tragic incident. No sooner did a robin, who had been putting the finishing touches to her nest in a tree near by, see the distress of the chippy than she took wing and darted in pursuit of the hawk. Overtaking the robber, the robin at once attacked him with much courage. She dealt blow after blow with her beak on the hawk's body, each blow being followed by the scattering of a tuft of feathers plucked from the plumage of the marauding hawk. That party to the battle in mid-air seemed dazed at first and rose straight upward, the robin following. Then the hawk swooped downward, and turned abruptly in another direction. Still the plucky robin kept close, and at every stroke of her beak the hawk uttered a cry of pain. Thus the combat was continued in a narrow circle near the piazza for more than a minute. The spectators were much excited. They clapped their hands and tried to encourage the robin as much as possible, and they were well pleased indeed when the hawk dropped his prey and fled afar. The chippy fell like a plummet toward the ground. It seemed as though it had escaped from the hawk only to be dashed to death on the earth, when suddenly it found its wings, and, fluttering for an instant, gained a safe poise, and flew to the robin's tree. Meanwhile, the robin had returned to her nest, where she resumed her work as though nothing had happened to mar the serenity of the peaceful afternoon.—Sel.