106 CITIZEN BIRD 



ing song and begins house-building. From this time 

 until he moults, late in July, every one in his vicinity 

 may enjoy a free concert morning and evening, and at 

 intervals during the day. Sometimes in cloudy weather 

 he even sings at noon — a time when birds are most 

 likely to be silent. 



" In gratitude for what we owe him for his music 

 and his work in the guilds, we must be patient with 

 him when he secures the first ripe cherries from the 

 top of the tree, before we House People know that they 

 are even red. For every cherry and strawberry he 

 bites, he pays ten times over by swallowing a hundred 

 wicked hungry worms and bugs that eat everything 

 and do no work in return. But House People are very 

 blind about some things, and often act as if they had 

 only one eye apiece, like the Cyclopes. We see one 

 of these darling birds take a little fruit ; we see more 

 fruit with holes in it, and think that birds have done 

 the damage, though a wasp or hornet may be the guilty 

 party ; and then we often say, ' What a nuisance those 

 birds are I ' 



" But all the rest of the growing year, when these 

 same birds toil from sunrise until sunset, to clear away 

 insect pests and give us a better crop of fruit next 

 year, we do not notice it. You children, however, Avill 

 have no such excuse for keeping one eye shut when 

 you know Citizen Bird as he really is." 



"How late at night does the Wood Thrush sing?" 

 asked Nat. " Does he never sleep ? " 



" Oh, yes, he goes to sleep when it is really dark, but 

 at this nesting season the night in Birdland is very 

 short ; some of the feathered people are stirring at 



