60 SHARP EYES. 



The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog 

 will worry a bear. It is by his persistence and au- 

 dacity, not by any injury he is capable of dealing his 

 great antagonist. The king-bird seldom more than 

 dogs the hawk, keeping above and between his wings, 

 and making a great ado ; but my correspondent says 

 he once " saw a king-bird riding on a hawk's back. 

 The hawk flew as fast as possible, and the king-bird 

 sat upon his shoulders in triumph until they had 

 passed out of sight/' tweaking his feathers, no 

 doubt, and threatening to scalp him the next moment. 



That near relative of the king-bird, the great 

 crested fly-catcher, has one well known peculiarity : 

 he appears never to consider his nest finished until it 

 contains a cast-off snake-skin. My alert correspond- 

 ent one day saw him eagerly catch up an onion skin 

 and make off with it, either deceived by it or else 

 thinking it a good substitute for the coveted material. 



One day in May, walking in the woods, I came 

 apon the nest of a whip-poor-will, or rather its eggs, 

 for it builds no nest, two elliptical whitish spotted 

 eggs lying upon the dry leaves. My foot was within 

 a yard of the mother-bird before she flew. I won- 

 dered what a sharp eye would detect curious or char- 

 acteristic in the ways of the bird, so I came to the 

 place many times and had a look. It was always a 

 task to separate the bird from her surroundings , 

 though I stood within a few feet of her, and knew 

 exactly where to look. One had to bear on with hia 

 eye, as it were, and refuse to be baffled. The sticki 



