Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1884 — A Bird’s Nest Lined with Gold. [ARTICLE]

A Bird’s Nest Lined with Gold.

Close to the United States mint, on the roof of a place of business across the street, there is a small bird-box, which was formerly occupied about this time of year by a pair of robins, but lately occupied solely and entirely by a pugnacious and tricky English sparrow. Thu miserly fellow—and the sparrows are all an avaricious set—after driving the robbins out, has occupied the box for two seasons without even so much as a mate. As might be supposed, one who was able to do that is foremost in looking out for himself in other ways. Among the girls, and even among the men in the mint, nearly all of whom bring their dinners with them, this particular sparrow has been long a favorite because of his boldness, and so freely does he fly in the windows and flit in the back door of the smelting room to pick up crumbs that they jocularly say he is the only one who has the "free run of the mint.” A short time ago a boy in the building went where Mr. Sparrow has made his nest, and peeking into the box to see if there were any of the young folks at home, as the boys love to do, he was surprised upon drawing his fingers out to see them sparkling in the bright sunshine. No miner who strikes an unexpected vein was more excited than that boy as he seized the box and carried the whole thing down stairs, where it was found that the inside was j*,ot only sleeked with gold dust, but that the accumulations of the precious metal had formed a sort of carpet of sparkling, soft, yellow gold, the whole proving a veritable “bonanza.” The sparrow had regularly been carrying off quantities of gold dust in its feathers which it shook out when it made its toilet in the morning. The nest is being assayed.—Philadelphia Times.