no 



STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



mud-builders are often at the mercy 

 of the storm ; a possible fate which 

 is not always anticipated in the se- 

 lection of a building site. In the 

 > case of the swallow beneath the 

 eaves, and the phcebe under the 

 bridge, the home is safe, but the 

 robin occasionally pays a heavy 

 penalty for the daring exposure of 

 its nest, the fair structure of the 

 \sunshine literally melting away 



in the rain. During the past wet sea- 

 son two such mishaps occurred upon 

 my lawn, the nests having disintegrated, 

 and fallen in shapeless masses, scatter- 

 ing the egg contents upon the ground. 

 Recently I chanced upon another 

 reckless nest, that of the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo, or rain-crow, in the top of 

 an apple-tree if, indeed, the loose 

 pile of sticks could be dignified by 

 the name of nest at all, being more 

 suggestive of a gridiron, through which 

 the outlines of the head and the long 

 projecting tail of the bird were distinctly 

 perceptible against the sky. As I climbed 



