The Wit of the Wild 



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To-day there suddenly dashed into the 

 tree, with a loud, rasping shout, a bully of a 

 bluejay. The hummer glanced into the air and 

 vanished like the bursting of an iridescent bub- 

 ble; but the robin whirled and drove at the 

 stranger without an instant's waiting. Like a 

 flash his little mate came from the nest to her 

 husband's aid, and a third robin rushed in from 

 elsewhere, so that in two seconds the braggart 

 jay was routed and fleeing to the woods. What 

 a row it raised! The robins chased him hotly, 

 the wood- thrush sprang from her cradle in the 

 hemlock to give her help, and I could hear little 

 birds joining in the hue and cry as the rout ran 

 up the hillside, till the jay had been driven to 

 a safe distance. 



Now and then the robin visits his wife at the 

 nest, and, I think, takes her a cherry ; but I get 

 no sight of any conjugal attentions on the part 

 of the wood- thrush, in whose nest are only three 

 eggs. Probably it is a second brood. 



July 3. Both robins have disappeared, yet 

 no one has seen any harm befall them nor heard 



-$ 66 &*> 



