p. 572 | A Sparrow's Feat

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 17, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 36.

A Sparrow's Feat.

I SAW a sparrow perform a feat the other day which entertained me greatly. He had found in the road a long strip of cotton cloth which his intelligence seemed to tell him was excellently adapted for purposes of nest building. Confidently, then, he seized one end of it in his beak, and flew away with it. Soon, however, the wind blew the long streamer about his wings, and brought him tumbling into the dust. He picked himself up, shook himself, and, seizing the rag by the other hand, made a second attempt, which resulted as disastrously as the first. Then he seized the strip by the middle, but this time he was entangled more quickly than before, and brought to earth before he had risen to the height of a yard. He then squatted down, panting, regarding the rag malevolently, yet apparently determined. Presently his appearance changed; an idea had evidently struck him. He hopped briskly up to the cloth, and with claws and bill rolled it up into a compact ball. Then he drove his beak into it, shook his head once or twice to assure himself that the ends were secure, and flew briskly away, reaching his distant box in safety. If ever a bird reasoned, this sparrow did, and I have no doubt that they all do reason, and rather profoundly, too, at times.—Sel.