HOW BIRDS GOT THEIR PLUMAGE. 9 1 



A suitable perch being found, it will sit for half an hour at a 

 stretch and go through its repertory. This is one of the most ex- 

 tensive of all the wild songsters. It is surpassed only by some 

 members of the thrush family, and not by all of them. It has 

 many notes, and these notes are broken into several arrangements, 

 which are never mixed and never varied, just as if a minstrel spar- 

 row wrote a lot of songs ages ago and a censor sparrow selected 

 those which were fit for public hearing, excluding all of the rest 

 by the simple process of destroying the manuscript and killing the 

 composer. If let alone the singer will sing everything that it 

 knows, and then if not satisfied will sing them over again, being in 

 this respect much like a vaudeville artist, willing to do an unre- 

 mitted number of turns so long as there is a handicap and the man- 

 agement does not interfere. Each song consists of half a dozen 

 notes and half notes, beginning with a faint peep or wavo and end- 

 ing with a joyous trill, as if the performer were so happy because 

 of its skill that it could not help showing it. — New York Sun. 



How Birds Got Their Plumage. 



The red Indians say that originally all the birds were without 

 feathers. And they did not like it. So they held a great council 

 and resolved they must have some kind of clothes to wear. 



They were told that coverings had been prepared for them, but 

 that they were a long way off and they must either go or send for 

 them. 



It was proposed that the crow go to get the clothing, but he ex- 

 cused himself by saying that he must stay and take care of his 

 family. 



Then the eagle was asked to undertake the journey, but he said 

 that the hunters would surely shoot him on the way. So one after 

 another all the birds begged off until it came to the turkey buzzard, 

 who volunteered to undertake the task. 



The place where the feathery coverings were, was such a long 

 way off that the turkey buzzard, who had been very particular 

 about his food before, was obliged to eat carrion and all sorts of 

 things to keep alive, which accounts for his present habits of diet. 

 However, he reached the place where the feather clothes were and 

 selected for himself the most beautiful suit of plumage in the lot' 



But he found that with this on he could not fly, and so he con- 

 tinued trying on the different suits of feathers until he came to the 



