SHARP EYES. 5 



quest of his mate. His next-door neighbor, a female 

 bird, seeing her chance, quickly slipped in and seized 

 the feather, — and here the wit of the bird came out, 

 for instead of carrying it into her own box she flew with 

 it to a near tree and hid it in a fork of the branches, 

 then went home, and when her neighbor returned with 

 his mate was innocently employed about her own af-j 

 fairs. The proud male, finding his feather gone, came 

 out of his box in a high state of excitement, and, with 

 vvrath in his manner and accusation on his tongue, 

 rushed into the cot of the female. Not finding his 

 goods and chattels there as he had expected, he 

 stormed around a while, abusing everybody in general 

 and his neighbor in particular, and then went away as 

 if to repair the loss. As soon as he was out of sight, 

 the shrewd thief went and brought the feather home 

 and lined her own domicile with it. 



I was much amused one summer day in seeing & 

 bluebird feeding her young one in the shaded street of 

 a large town. She had captured a cicada or harvest- 

 fly, and after bruising it a while on the ground flew 

 with it to a tree and placed it in the beak of the young 

 bird. It was a large morsel, and the mother seemed 

 to have doubts of her chick's ability to dispose of it, 

 for she stood near and watched its efforts with great 

 solicitude. The young bird struggled valiantly with 

 the cicada, but made no headway in swallowing it, 

 when the mother took it from him and flew to the 

 sidewalk, and proceeded to break and bruise it more 

 thoroughly. Then she again placed it in his beak, and 

 seemed to say, " There, try it now," and sympathized 

 so thoroughly with his efforts that she repeated many 

 of his motions and contortions. But the great fly was 

 onyielding, and, indeed, seemed ridiculously dispropor- 



