46 SHARP EYES. 



held by the cats to be very mysterious : being struck 

 in the eye by something invisible to them. They 

 soon acquired such a terror of him that they would 

 avoid him and run away whenever they saw his bill 

 turned in their direction. He never would swallow 

 a grasshopper even when it was placed in his throat ; 

 he would shake himself until he had thrown it out of 

 his mouth. His 'best hold' was ants. He never 

 was surprised at anything, and never was afraid of 

 anything. He would drive the turkey gobbler and 

 the rooster. He would advance upon them holding 

 one wing up as high as possible, as if to strike with 

 it, and shuffle along the ground toward them, scold- 

 ing all the while in a harsh voice. I feared at first 

 that they might kill him, but I soon found that he 

 was able to take care of himself. I would turn over 

 stones and dig into ant-hills for him, and he would 

 lick up the ants so fast that a stream of them seemed 

 going into his mouth unceasingly. I kept him till 

 late in the fall, when he disappeared, probably going 

 south, and I never saw him again." 



My correspondent also sends me some interest- 

 ing observations about the cuckoo. He says a large 

 gooseberry-bush standing in the border of an old 

 hedge-row, in the midst of open fields, and not far 

 from his house, was occupied by a pair of cuckoos for 

 two seasons in succession, and, after an interval of a 

 year, for two seasons more. This gave him a good 

 chance to observe them. He says the mother-bird 

 lays a single egg, and sits upon it a number of days 



