THE FAMILIAR BIRDS 



has a rent in his brown coat, and a feather is missing 

 from his waistcoat, reveaUng the dark-gray Hning, 

 and giving him just a suspicion of shabbiness. I am 

 wondering if some indignant robin could not tell 

 how he came by these blemishes. 



This particular male thrush, by the way, has the 

 most robin-like note I have ever heard come from 

 a wood thrush. Often his "Fip, fip, fip,'* is so like 

 the robin's that I have to look to see which bird it is. 



When the female had been here a few days I fre- 

 quently saw the pair inspecting a fork near the end 

 of a low branch of the apple-tree; they were evi- 

 dently considering it as a likely place for a nest. 

 Then one morning I saw the female bring a piece of 

 white paper and place it in the fork and sit down 

 upon it. She went through this performance several 

 times without making any progress. Once I saw a 

 sheet of note-paper dancing around on the gravel 

 path in a most extraordinary manner, and presently 

 caught a glimpse of the thrush beneath it, holding one 

 edge of it in her beak, and trying hard to get such 

 control of it as to enable her to carry it to her nest. 

 But the problem was too much for her. After I had 

 torn the sheet in strips she took them one by one to 

 the branch in the apple-tree, determined that her 

 domicile should have a paper foundation. But she 

 could not make the paper "stay put"; it quickly 

 fell to the ground. She would peer down upon the 

 fallen fragments in a curious, helpless way, but 



69 



