AN ORPHANED BLACKBIRD 299 



excitedly, bounding over the lawn with long hops, look- 

 ing like a miniature very dark-coloured kangaroo. 



One day I came back alone to the cottage, and sat 

 down on the lawn in a canvas chair, to wait for my 

 companion who had the key. The blackbird had seen, 

 and came flying to me, and pitching close to my feet 

 began crying to be fed, shaking his wings, and dancing 

 about in a most excited state, for he had been left a 

 good many hours without food, and was very hungry. 

 As I moved not in my chair he presently ran round and 

 began screaming and fluttering on the other side of it, 

 thinking, I suppose, that he had gone to the wrong 

 place, and that by addressing himself to the back of my 

 head he would quickly get an answer. 



The action of this bird in coming to be fed naturally 

 attracted a good deal of attention among the feathered 

 people about us; they would look on at a distance, 

 evidently astonished and much puzzled at our bird's 

 boldness in coming to our feet. But nothing dreadful 

 happened to him, and little by little they began to lose 

 their suspicion ; and first a robin the robin is always 

 first then other blackbirds to the number of seven, 

 then chaffinches and dunnocks, all began to grow tame 

 and to attend regularly at meal-time to have a share in 

 anything that was going. The most lively, active, and 

 quarrelsome member of this company was our now 

 glossy foundling; and it troubled us to think that in 

 feeding him we were but staving off the evil day when 

 he would once more have to find for himself. Certainly 



