A few years since, a pair of sparrows, which had built in the thatch
roof of a house at Poole, were observed to continue their visits to the
nest long after the time when the young birds take flight. This unusual
circumstance continued throughout the year; and in the winter, a
gentleman who had all along observed them, determined on investigating
the cause. He therefore mounted a ladder, and found one of the young
ones detained a prisoner, by means of a piece of string, or worsted,
which formed part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted round
its leg. Being thus incapacitated from procuring its own sustenance, it
had been fed by the continued exertions of its parents.
An old man belonging to the neighborhood of Glasgow, who was a soldier
in his youth, mentions, that he became first reconciled to a foreign
country, by observing a sparrow hopping about just as he had seen them
do at home. "Are you here too, freen?" said he to the sparrow. He does
not add that it returned a verbal answer to his exclamatory question;
but he could not help fancying that it looked assent, as if it
understood he was an exile, and wished him to take a lesson of
resignation to circumstances.