Nothing can be more delightful than 

 the song of our mocking birds, heard 

 when the moonlight makes the night 

 almost as light as the day and the 

 south wind is ladened with the delicious 

 odors of roses and honeysuckle. 



At last the eggs were hatched and 

 five baby birds demanded food. The 

 parent birds worked constantly from 

 dawn till dark, but, from the loud "ce- 

 ce-ce" which greeted them each time 

 they neared the nest, one might suppose 

 the supply of food never equaled the 

 demand. 



A young mocking bird seems all 

 mouth and legs. He is a comical lit 

 tle creature with his scant covering of 

 gray down, long legs, large feet and 

 ever-open mouth, with its lining of 

 bright orange. 



As the old bird approaches the little 

 ones squat flat in the nest, throw back 

 their heads and open their enormous 

 mouths, which must seem like so many 

 bottomless pits .to the parent birds 

 when they are tired. 



If my favorite cat, Mephistopheles, 

 tried to take his nap anywhere in the 

 vicinity of their nest Jack and Jill 

 would fly at him, screaming, and, boldly 

 lighting upon his head, try to peck at 

 his eyes. He would strike at them and 

 spit, but they would only fly upon the 

 fence or rose-trellis and in a moment 

 dart at him again. The battle would 

 continue until Mephistopheles retired 

 to a safer place. 



I have seen many such battles, but 

 never one where the bird was not vic 

 torious. 



One morning, when the birds were 

 still quite small, one of them tumbled 

 from the nest. At first I thought the 

 mother-bird might have pushed it out 

 that it might learn to fly, but after see 

 ing the feathers of its wings had only 

 reached the tiny pin-feather stage, I 

 knew it was too young for such efforts 

 and concluded that the nest was over 

 crowded. I tried to put it in the nest 

 for it was drenched with the dew from 

 the grass. 



Jack and Jill objected so seriously to 

 my assistance that I had to give up 

 this plan, for they flew at me just as 

 they did at Mephistopheles. Fearing 

 the cat would hurt it I was compelled to 

 take it into the house. 



Then my troubles began. It seemed 

 to take all of my time to feed this one 

 bird, and I could not imagine how Jack 

 and Jill could take care of it and four 

 others. 



For awhile it seemed very much 

 frightened, but at length began to chirp. 

 The old birds answered at once and 

 soon came to the screen on the window 

 and called to it. Knowing they would 

 feed it if they could reach it I had to 

 keep it away from them, for, should 

 they discover it was a prisoner, they 

 would give it poison. 



We named it Chippy and it soon be 

 came a great pet. Whenever anyone 

 entered the room where it was its mouth 

 flew open, and from its shrill "chee-chee- 

 chee" one might easily imagine it was 

 on the verge of starvation. 



When I had had it a week it would 

 try to fly from the floor to the lower 

 rounds of a chair. When it had learned 

 to fly, if left alone it would call until 

 someone answered, and then follow the 

 sound until it found them. I have 

 known it to fly through two rooms, a 

 downstairs hall, up the stair-steps, 

 through the upper hall, and into my 

 room in response to my whistle. 



When it first made this journey it 

 could fly only two or three feet at a 

 time and had to fly from step to step 

 up the stairway. 



Soon after this I took Chippy out of 

 doors. JHe was very much delighted 

 when placed in a young hackberry tree, 

 where he could fly from branch to 

 branch. When he reached the top of 

 the tree Jill flew into a tree near by and 

 tried to coax him to come to her. I 

 saw Chippy spread his wings and sup 

 posed I had lost my pet. Imagine my 

 surprise when he gave a shrill scream 

 and flew straight to me, lighting on my 

 shoulder and nestling against my face. 



Jill followed him, resting in a vine 

 some three or four feet from me. When 

 coaxing failed she flew away but soon 

 returned with a grasshopper in her bill. 



I drove Chippy away from me, hop 

 ing he would return to his own family, 

 where his education could be carried on 

 according to their ideas. 



He flew into a tree, ate the grasshop 

 per which Jill fed to him, and then flew 

 on the roof of the porch outside my 

 window, where he sat calling me. Go- 



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