pc SHARP EYES. 
long blue pin-feathers as long as darning-needles, 
without a bit of plumage on them. They part on the 
back and hang down on each side by their own weight. 
With its curious feathers and misshapen body the 
young bird is anything but handsome. They never 
open their mouths when approached, as many young 
birds do, but sit perfectly still, hardly moving when 
touched.” He also notes the unnatural indifference 
of the mother-bird when her nest and young are ap- 
proached. She makes no sound, but sits quietly on a 
near branch in apparent perfect unconcern. 
These observations, together with the fact that the 
ego of the cuckoo is occasionally found in the nests of 
other birds, raise the inquiry whether our bird is 
slowly relapsing into the habit of the European spe- 
cies, which always foists its egg upon other birds; or 
whether, on the other hand, it be not mending its 
manners in this respect. It has but little to unlearn 
or forget in the one case, but great progress to make 
in the other. How far is its rudimentary nest —a 
mere platform of coarse twigs and dry stalks of weeds 
—from the deep, compact, finely woven and finely 
modeled nest of the goldfinch or king-bird, and what 
a gulf between its indifference toward its young and 
their solicitude! Its irregular manner of laying also 
seems better suited to a parasite like our cow-bird, or 
the European cuckoo, than to a regular nest-builder. 
This observer, like most sharp-eyed persons, sees 
plenty of interesting things as he goes about his work. 
He one day saw a white swallow, which is of rare 
occurrence. He saw a bird, a sparrow he thinks, fly 
against the side of a horse and fill his beak with hair 
from the loosened coat of the animal. He saw a 
shrike pursue a chickadee, when the latter escaped by 
