SHARP EYES. U 



run away v/henever 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 any° 

 thing, and never was afraid of anything. He would 

 jdrive 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, scolding 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 unceas* 

 ingiy. I kept him till late in the fall, when he disap- 

 peared, probably going south, and I never saw him 

 again." 



My correspondent also sends me some interesting 

 observations about the cuckoo. He says a large goose- 

 berry 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 sea- 

 sons 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 before laying 

 the second, so that he has seen one young bird nearly 

 grown, a second just hatched, and a whole egg all in 

 the nest at once. " So far as I have seen, this is the 

 settled practice, — the young leaving the nest one at 

 a time to the number of six or eight. The young 

 have quite the look of the young of the dove in many 

 respects. When nearly grown they are covered with 



