BIRD CRADLES. m 



the tree the bird flew to the neighboring branches, uttering an 

 occasional hoarse croak in its familiar tone, obedient, as it were, 

 to a periodic pumping stroke of the long tail. I found the nest 

 occupied by a single fledgling, and was moved to congratulate 

 the remnant for having managed to reach his pin-feather days 

 without tumbling out of bed, which I fancied must have been 

 the fate of his presumably former bedfellows, for the edge of 

 the open pile of sticks was lower than the centre whereon he 

 rested. 



Examples of this sort of nest-building are happily not com- 

 mon, and in the case of this bird, a near congener to the Euro- 

 pean cuckoo, though entirely without its parasitic habits, it would 

 seem to have a somewhat parallel sin of shiftlessness. In all the 

 four nests of this bird which I have found, this contributory neg- 

 ligence towards the destruction of its offspring has been manifest. 

 My fancy has sometimes suggested the query whether this may 

 not be an example of the process of evolution from a lower para- 

 sitical to a higher state, the dawning intelligence in the art of 

 nest-building. 



The turtle-dove is accused of a like carelessness in the con- 

 struction of its nest. The nighthawk and the whippoorwill, 

 though building no nest at all, are more considerate of their 

 babes, at least assuring them against the fate of the cuckoo's 

 brood by nesting on the ground. 



Last summer I was favored with a rare neighbor in the shape 

 of a red-headed w r oodpecker, not a common visitant in Connecti- 

 cut, at least in the section familiar to me. Remembering that 

 this was the bird whose flashing plumage and flaming scarlet 

 head kindled the ornithological fervor of Wilson, which led to his 

 subsequent fame, my visitor came doubly recommended. The 

 nest was excavated on the underside of a large branch of an 

 apple-tree near the house; and even though naturally safe from 

 observation, the bird seemed little desirous of concealment, pirou- 

 etting about the elm trunk close by the window and speeding 

 like a rocket directly to its nest. 



At first thought the peculiar conditions of the woodpecker's 



