. AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 189 



and listened and thought, "We'll see how pretty they are! Safe, are 

 they? Wait and see, wait and see!" 



That night, after all the day birds had gone to sleep, and only the 

 Whippoorwill was singing in the swamp, old mother skunk called her 

 three children around her and said, "Come, we will go and get some 

 supper now. I know where there are nice little birds that will taste 

 good to my dears. And it is time you were learning to hunt for your- 

 selves." So down the meadow they went, creeping slowly along 

 in the grass under the plank walk, mother skunk leading the way, and 

 the little ones following almost in her very footprints, quivering with 

 excitement. When they came near the nest mother skunk turned and 

 whispered, "Slowly, now — carefully — don't wake them!" 



Father Song Sparrow flew straight up in the air when he was roused 

 by the terrified cries of mother Song Sparrow and the babies. Down 

 he dashed at old mother skunk and fluttered wildly around her, but she 

 paid no more attention to him than as if he were a feather floating in 

 the air. By and by she went away, and the three children with her. 

 Father Song Sparrow came down from the apple tree and called, at 

 first softly and cautiously, then louder and louder. But no one answered 

 him. One little baby lay dead on the bank and there were a few tail 

 quills floating on the water. The Whippoorwill had stopped singing. 

 Father Song Sparrow went back to the apple tree and waited till morn- 

 ing. 



Very early the mighty man came down the plank walk to hoe the 

 beans. Father Song Sparrow remembered what he had said to the 

 awful small boy. When the mighty man came near the nest he found 

 a frantic little bird hopping on the walk, fluttering up the bank, flying 

 up into the tree, and all the time crying, "Look! Look! Look! See 

 how wicked she wasl See! See! See! All my babies are gone! Oh! 

 Oh! Oh! She's killed them every one! Look! Look! Look! Mother 

 and babies and all!" The mighty man stopped, pushed aside the black- 

 berry bush and looked into the nest. Then he looked on the bank. 

 Then he said just one word — "Skunks" — and went tramping up through 

 the field. Father Song Sparrow followed, flying from tree to tree and 

 crying, "Oh! Oh! Oh! What are you going to do?" At last the mighty 

 man stopped and looked around very carefully. The next minute 

 Father Song Sparrow saw him step quickly to one side and strike some- 

 thing hard with the hoe, once — twice — three times. Then he picked up a 

 heavy stone and threw it at something. Father Song Sparrow flew up 

 very close to see what was going on. There in the grass lay old 

 mother skunk and three children, all dead. 



