Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-03-16
BREAKS THE sPARRows' HEARTS.
Novel Way in Which Boy and Dog
Earned the Chicago Bounty.

Novel Way in which BOY and a Dog
Earned the Chicago Bounty.
Across the street from where Dick and
his owner live is a large vacant lot which
has lately been cleared Of trees, many Of
the branches Of which were allowed to re-
main on the ground. In the tall grass
which grew up under these branches thou
sands Of English sparrows daily congre-
gate to feed on the grass seed and then
perch in the fallen tree tops. About the
time that the law putting a price on the
heads Of these winged offenders went into
effect the attention of Dicks owner was
attracted 20 this rendezvous Of the birds
as a first class place TO secure sparrow
scalps
Being without a gun he went over to see
what he could do in the way Of stoning a
few Of them to death. Dick accompanied
him on the hunt, and to his masters dis
gust made a sudden bound in among the
sparrUws before he had a chance to throw
a stone. If a dynamite bomb had been ex-
ploded among the birds their consterna-
ton could not have been greater. They
few i'm every direction, as ii shot out of
gun, striking their wings and heads against
the branches Of the trees in their wild
haste to get away. Dick sneaked OF, with
the sheepish look of dog who knows he
has done wrong.
His master turned away i'm disgust. In
a minute or two DE noticed that the spar
rows had returned and started to make an
other attack Dick, who was watching
the campaign with much eagerness made
a det0ur and coming up stealthily from
the other side repeated his previous exploit
before his master could get close enough to
hit them. The lad then turned his bat
teries on Dick who prudently kept out Of
range and awaited developments.
The boy walked away, but Dick remained.
He had discovered a new diversion. He
would walk of a little distance and lie
down and wait until the sparrOws had
gathered i'm the branches again, when he
would creep up slowly and with a sudden
bound pouuce down on the spaTOws again.
This soon began TO interest the boy too.
He sat and watched Dicks maneuvers for
several hours thinking il great fun After
awhile he noticed that as the sparrows
few away some Of them dropped to the
ground suddenly as if hurt, and picking up
one which had fallen near him, found it
dead Before night he had collected near
ly 100 sparows.
After disposing of his collection at the
sparrow Office next morning and opening
up negotiations for a small rifle he re-
turned to his hunting ground. Dick had
preceded him, aud he found quite a batch
of dead sparruws as the result Of Dicks
morning efforts. In fact, the number Of
dead sparrOws increased daily, and finally
the boys curiosity was aroused. What is
il what kills emp he asked Of a sympa-
thetic old Ir-nwoman who keeps a candy
and fruit store in the block and whose
sales had been largely increased by the
boys success in sparrow catching. "Shure
it's Of a broken harrut the puir crathurs
die, we murJherin spalpeen, ye. Can't ye
say they kape thryiu to go to the brush all
the tonne 90 get boite TO ate, an yere ras-
cally baSte uy a dog kapes huntin 'em
away till the puir things die of yiNashun
and disappointment, so they do"
A physician of the neighborhood who
has made % study of ornithology had his
curiosity aroused by the strange way in
which the birds died and dissected several
OF them to discover the cause of death. To
his surpri-. h. found the old lrishwom-
ans hasty conclusion was correct In every
case he found the birds heart was rup-
tured Whether this resulted from the
sudden fright which the birds got when
Dick spr3ug among them or whether il
was from "viE1sluu and disappointment
the doctor declines t1say.-Chicago Times