SHARP EVES. 5 
quest of his mate. His next-door neighbor, a female 
bird, seeing her chance, quickly slipped in and seized 
the feather, — and here the wit of the bird came out. 
for instead of carrying it into her own box she flew with 
it to a near tree and hid it in a fork of the branches, 
then went home, and when her neighbor returned with 
his mate was innocently employed about her own af- 
fairs. The proud male, finding his feather gone, came 
out of his box in a high state of excitement, and, with 
wrath in his manner and accusation on his tongue, 
rushed into the cot of the female. Not finding his 
goods and chattels there as he had expected, he 
stormed around a while, abusing everybody in general 
and his neighbor in particular, and then went away as 
if to repair the loss. As soon as he was out of sight, 
the shrewd thief went and brought the feather home 
and lined her own domicile with it. 
I was much amused one summer day in seeing a 
bluebird feeding her young one in the shaded street of 
a large town. She had captured a cicada or harvest- 
fly, and after bruising it a while on the ground flew 
with it to a tree and placed it in the beak of the young 
bird. It was a large morsel, and the mother seemed 
to have doubts of her chick’s ability to dispose of it, 
for she stood near and watched its efforts with great 
solicitude. The young bird struggled valiantly with 
the cicada, but made no headway in swallowing it, 
when the mother took it from him and flew to the 
sidewalk, and proceeded to break and bruise it more 
thoroughly. Then she again placed it in his beak, and 
seemed to say, “ There, try it now,” and sympathized 
so thoroughly with his efforts that she repeated many 
of his motions and contortions. But the great fly was 
unyielding, and, indeed, seemed ridiculously dispropor- 
