208 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIKDS. 



impervious to sight, but at last it occurred to me to thrust 

 my cane into the difficult bosom of the brake, and turning 

 aside the thorns gently, I saw, sure enough, as I had sus- 

 pected, four yellow mouths gaping out of shadow, to the stir 

 which reached only the darkened sense of their sealed vision. 

 Carefully through the environed thorns I lifted the dim fam- 

 ily, and bore it to my wife. 



" What can we do with them ?" said she, despondingly. 



" Never mind ; we have the English wood thrush, Brow- 

 nie the Second, and rest assured he will take care of these 

 callow younglings." 



"Well, we got the little things home, and " Brownie the 

 Second " behaved very much as Brownie the First had be- 

 haved. 



He exhibited the same tender solicitude as Brownie the 

 First. After we placed the nest in his cage, he continued 

 for an hour or so to jump around, with a wonderful expression 

 of wonder and uncertainty, until the little creatures began 

 to gap their mouths with hunger, and utter a feeble cry for 

 help; then came our valorous Song Thrush, and with just the 

 same movements which I have described in the conduct of 

 "Brownie the First" towards the dismal kelpie, he estab- 

 lished an immediate sympathy with the forlorn little ones. 



He fed the young mockers at once, and sedulously culti- 

 vated them into respectability, and it was very amusing to 

 notice, as the young birds grew up, how insolently they at- 

 tempted, (as in the case of the blue birds mentioned in my 

 second chapter,) to assert their supremacy. They could 

 make nothing out of the " Song Thrush." 



What he did was a sentiment. Let your insolent autocrat 

 of song say what he might, in splendid diction, but he never 

 yet dared to emulate my song ! I am the voice of love his 

 of ambition ! so let us stand ; and thus they stood, so far as 

 their future relations were concerned. 



When the young mocking birds which he had cultivated, 

 became obstreperous, and presumed to peck with their usual 



