How the acquaintance might have ended I cannot say. The next day the curtains were taken down and Mousie, sadly disappointed, had no ladder by which to climb. And later in the week Nixie went out of town for the summer. We wanted to take the mouse, too, but the noise the packers and movers made probably frightened him to such an extent that he dared not show himself. We do not know what his future was, but we trust it was crowned with the success due pluck and gentleness. Katharine Pope. [Illustration: GRASSHOPPER SPARROW. (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus). Life-size. FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.] THE GRASSHOPPER SPARROW. (_Ammodramus savannarum passerinus._) Of all the bird voices of the meadow, for its interesting originality and its effect in ensemble, we can least spare that of the little Grasshopper Sparrow.—R. M. Silloway, in “Sketches of Some Common Birds.” This little bird of the meadow and hayfield is quite easily identified by the marked yellow color at the shoulders of the wings, the yellowish color of the lesser wing coverts, the buff colored breast and the orange colored line before the eyes. Its home is on the ground, where its retiring habits lead it to seek the protecting cover of tall grass and other herbage. As it is not often seen except when flushed or when it rises to the rail of a fence or to the top of a tall spear of grass to utter its peculiar song, it is often considered rare. It is, however, a common bird in many localities of its range, which covers the whole of eastern North America, where it builds, upon the ground, its nest of grass lined with hair and a few feathers. It nests as far north as Massachusetts and Minnesota and winters in the southern states and the adjacent islands. This bird was given the name Grasshopper Sparrow from the fancied resemblance of its weak cherup—“a peculiar monotonous song”—to the shrilling produced by the long-horned grasshopper. However, the song often begins and ends with a faint warble. Mr. Chapman says that these notes “may be written pit túck zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e.”