The Burgess Bird Book for Children 



bad names. But none, not even Bully the Eng- 

 lish Sparrow, was brave enough to join him in 

 attacking big Redtail. 



When he had succeeded in driving Redtail far 

 enough from the Old Orchard to suit him, Scrapper 

 flew back and perched on a dead branch of one 

 of the trees, where he received the congratulations 

 of all his feathered neighbors. He took them 

 quite modestly, assuring them that he had done 

 nothing, nothing at all, but that he didn't intend 

 to have any of the Hawk family around the Old 

 Orchard while he lived there. Peter couldn't 

 help but admire Scrapper for his courage. 



As Peter looked up at Scrapper he saw that, 

 like all the rest of the flycatchers, there was just 

 the tiniest of hooks on the end of his bill. Scrap- 

 per's slightly raised cap seemed all black, but if 

 Peter could have gotten close enough, he would 

 have found that hidden in it was a patch of 

 orange-red. While Peter sat staring up at him 

 Scrapper suddenly darted out into the air, and 

 his bill snapped in quite the same way Chebec's 

 did when he caught a fly. But it wasn't a fly 

 that Scrapper had. It was a bee. Peter saw it 

 very distinctly just as Scrapper snapped it up. 

 It reminded Peter that he had often heard Scrap- 

 per called the Bee Martin, and now he understood 

 why. 



[481 



