.\t about three weeks of age. she would pick up her food but she was never 

 old enough to not insist upon having part of her food every day poked down her 

 throat, baby bird fashion. 



As soijn as she could fly, she would follow everywhere. If we called. "Chirk- 

 chirk !" she would come no matter where we were. Spiders, wire-worms, crickets, 

 black bugs and curculio larvae were favorite foods. 



She searched for food in a peculiar way. She inserted her closed bill in the 

 soil and then opened it, exposing her victim. When I was talking to her and 

 stopped speaking, she would insert her bill between my lips and open them. If 

 she were at the far side of the garden and heard my voice speaking to another 

 person, she would instantly fly to me. 



The third Sunday of her life, she was sufficiently feathered to take a bath. 

 I prepared a shallow basin of water and placed it in a sun-.shiny place on the 

 lawn. Dut her beside it and seated myself near. It was the first time she had ever 

 seen water. She did not notice it ; but I was sufficiently familiar with her family 

 traits to be sure she saw it and her bright brain was thinking about it. Sud- 

 denly she hopped directly into the center of the basin and began bathing vigor- 

 ously. Then the draggled thing climbed my arm and shoulder and, when close 

 to mv face, shook herself. I had difficulty in keeping her in a more sheltered, 

 sun-shiny position until dry. 



As she grew older, she often took two or three baths a day. If we were 

 washing vegetables, she bathed there ; when we rinsed the carpet, she bathed on it ; 

 if we drank from the dipper, she hurried into it for a bath ; and a slanting stick 

 in a jar of water aflforded footing for a bath. We had difficulty in keeping her 

 out of the washtub. 



By the first of July, we expected every night she would go to the trees to 

 roost and spoke of the time when we should lose her entirely. Still, she showed 

 no signs of going. 



On Sunday. July 9th, she was more frolicsome than usual. She fluttered 

 and danced her delight as she i)icked the curculio larvae from the plums I opened 

 for her. She ate her bread and milk with unusual zest. 



At dinner time, I left her outside on her favorite smilax vine. A few minutes 

 later, I was out on the verandah and callerl to her, "Chirk-chirk ! Where are you. 

 little Chirk-chirk?" but there was no reply and no Chirk-chirk came. I remem- 

 bered a water barrel and her love of water. 1 hastened to it, fear at my heart. 

 There was a dark bunch floating on the water. Oh, that it might be something 

 else! I reached for it. It was the l)ird ! I rinsed her oflf ami put her where she 

 would dry. She had a black bug in her mouth. W'c both cried but we could not 

 talk about her nor look at her not that day. 



The next afternoon I stufl'ed the body and we have it yet but it reminds us 

 but little of the animated creature we called Chirk-chirk, whose loving compan- 

 ionshi]) had brightened many days. 



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