Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1897 — Bright Sparrows. [ARTICLE]

Bright Sparrows.

The New York Sun prints a good story about the intelligence of the “English” sparrow, as that much maligned bird Is studied in New Jersey. A flock of -the sparrows live in the neighborhood of a certain suburban house. While the ground was bare they took core of themselves, and were seldom seen except mornings and evenings, and no one would have supposed that they knew anything of the persona in the house; but when the first heavy snow came, and the usual supply of food could not be gathered abroad, the birds showed that they not only knew that they had friends in the house, but realised just who was the friend to be relied upon most. On the first of these mornings the Jersey woman’s attention was attracted by a tapping and fluttering at one of the kitchen windows. The kitchen is in a basement, and its windows are half-above and half-below the levdl‘of the ground. The sparrows had gathered before one of these windows, and were pecking at its panes and fluttering in the snow close to It. She opened the window, and the birds merely hopped or flew a little way off and waited.

Then she shoveled a flat place in the snow with a dustpan and put out a supply of bread crumbs. .The birds ate them and flew away. They were there again the next morning, making the same appeals. Then it occurred to the mistress of the house that the appeals were made directly to her. The servant was in the kitchen every morning, but the birds did not appeal to her; and other members of the family were also about, but they received no calls for crumbs. On the following day the mistress of the house purposely delayed getting into the kitchen until much later then usual. Other members of the famddy were sent down one after another, and all showed themselves at the diningroom windows. The spanrows were in the yard, but did not approach the win.-* dows, and seemed much put out by their waiting. By and by the housewife went to the kitchen. No sooner did she step from the 'stairway than some watchful sparrow saw her, and then the whole flock flew with one accord to the window and began topping for food. One curious feature of the case is that when winter came the birds had not been fed since nearly a year before, when the mistress of the house showered rice or bread crumbs upon them from the back stoop. They would Let her pelt them with the food and never seem to mind it, but if any other person appeared suddenly at a window, (he whole flock would take flight, and seem to hold a conferencßßfroin many parts of the yard before trey would venture back.