128 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



sight, started vociferating about the " Teacher," 

 and half a dozen bright goldfinches chattered 

 among the dandelions in the sod at the wood's 

 edge, and several yellow warblers sang with 

 scarce a cessation, from the hazel and cherry- 

 thickets, and the night hawk rasped away com- 

 plainingly as he sought his meal high in the air, 

 then for a certainty it was summer. 



Soon came the building days and then the 

 brooding days; for the songs of the mornings 

 had been rewarded, and now every cock robin 

 about the place had a wife. By the beginning 

 of the last week of the month, three lady robins 

 were sitting close on their eggs, and a bronzed 

 grackle pair had also taken up house-keeping. 

 Next an oriole pair gave up their secret. The 

 male first disclosed his intentions when he was 

 caught dragging threads from the towel that 

 hung above the basin on a convenient limb, but 

 it remained for a sneaking female cowbird to 

 reveal the whereabouts of the nest. At break- 

 fast-time she was seen skulking nervouly in the 

 poplar-top, over the fire-place, and a close scru- 

 tiny of the fresh leaves revealed the new nest. 

 What a time this sneak thief must have waiting 

 around for a chance to get on the nest to deposit 



