50 SHARP EYES. 



The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog 

 will worry a bear. It is by his persistence and au- 

 dacity, not by any injury he is capable of dealing his 

 great antagonist. The king-bird seldom more than 

 dogs the hawk, keeping above and between his wings, 

 and making a great ado ; but my correspondent says 

 he once "saw a king-bird riding on a hawk's back. 

 The hawk flew as fast as possible, and the king-bird 

 sat upon his shoulders in triumph until they had 

 passed out of sight," tweaking his feathers, no 

 doubt, and threatening to scalp him the next moment. 



That near relative of the king-bird, the great 

 crested fly-catcher, has one well known peculiarity : 

 he appears never to consider his nest finished until it 

 contains a cast-off snake-skin. My alert correspond- 

 ent one day saw him eagerly catch up an onion skin 

 and make oif with it, either deceived by it or else 

 thinking it a good substitute for the coveted material. 



One day in May, walking in the woods, I came 

 apon the nest of a whip-poor-will, or rather its eggs, 

 for it builds no nest, two elliptical whitish spotted 

 eggs lying upon the dry leaves. My foot was within 

 a yard of the mother-bird before she flew. I won- 

 dered what a sharp eye would detect curious or char- 

 acteristic in the ways of the bird, so I came to the 

 place many times and had a look. It was always a 

 task to separate the bird from her surroundings - 

 though I stood within a few feet of her, and knew 

 exactly where to look. One had to bear on with his 

 eye, as it were, and refuse to be baffled. The stick/ 



