Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — A Bird’s Courtship and Death. [ARTICLE]

A Bird’s Courtship and Death.

A lady who lives on Olive street relates the following: A few days ago there fell in front of her window from a tree a “chippy,” or ground bird, such as chatter about the parks and streets. She picked it up, carried it in the house, fed it from her own mouth and at night placed it in the cage with her canary. The canary at once bestowed upon the new-comer all of the attention of a mother, and nestled beside the little stranger during the night. In the morning the lady placed the chippy in the window so that it might have the privilege of regaining its freedom. It plumedits tiny wings and went away. The canary mourned during the day as if he had lost his mate. In the evening the chippy came back and perched upon the window. The sash was raised, and it flew in and nestled upon the cage. The canary at once struck up his liveliest notes and seemed gratified. This was repeated two or three days, the chippy going each morning and returning in the evening One day it went away and did not come back. The eanary drooped, and the next day fell dead from his perch in the sunshine that played over the gilded cage in the window. That night the chippy returned, and during the evening it mourned over its dead companion. In the morning it clung to the cage until it was turned out. For a few days the empty cage was hung in the window, and on each succeeding evening the chippy returned and chirped as if it was grief-stricken. One day it brought a worm in its bill, dropped it in the cage, flew away and came back no more.—[St. Louis Times.

Nobody except the people in the front pews last Sunday, and only the few there who listened very intently, could hear the tenor when the choir started out “When I can read my title clear,” singing very distinctly, with his face turned toward the leader at the other end of the organ: “ I’ve lost the place; I’m in a fix, What ever shall I do?” And then the leader, in his profoundest bass, replied in his faultless tone and metre: “ The tune is on page ninety-six, The words on forty-two.”