He had warnings enough. Once some students, who had been friendly
all winter, stoned him out of a tree where he was nestrobbing;
once the sparrows caught him in their nest under the high eaves,
and knocked him off promptly. A twig upon which he caught in
falling saved his life undoubtedly, for the sparrows were after
him and he barely escaped into a knot hole, leaving the angry
horde clamoring outside. But nothing could reform him.
One morning at daylight a great crying of robins brought me to
the window. Meeko was running along a limb, the first of the
fledgelings in his mouth. After him were five or six robins whom
the parents' danger cry had brought to the rescue. They were all
excited and tremendously in earnest. They cried thief! thief! and
swooped at him like hawks. Their cries speedily brought a score
of other birds, some to watch, others to join in the punishment.
Meeko dropped the young bird and ran for his den; but a robin
dashed recklessly in his face and knocked him fair from the tree.
That and the fall of the fledgeling excited the birds more than
ever. This thieving bird-eater was not invulnerable. A dozen
rushed at him on the ground and left the marks of their beaks on
his coat before he could reach the nearest tree.
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