154 Bird -Lore 



little mother sat closely, not flying away until I was within four feet of her. 

 Then, as I was carefully focusing my camera, the image of the Vireo appeared 

 for a moment on the ground glass; she had come to see if her eggs were safe, 

 in the very face of the camera. This was an unexpected advance, and so, 

 having secured my pictures, I set up a rude dummy camera within a few feet 

 of the nest, and withdrew. 



The following day I returned, and the accompanying picture was made. 



Ezekiel 



By MAUD JAMISON SELBY. Dixon, 111. 



NOT the prophet priest of sacred history, but a dear little prophet of 

 joy and song, is the Ezekiel of my story. 

 One lovely Sabbath afternoon, while sitting on the bank of a 

 certain river in a beautiful park, I noticed a young fledgling near-by on the 

 back of a seat. Being always unable to resist getting as near as possible to 

 any member of the feathered family, I quietly approached, expecting at each 

 step to see him flutter away; also to be soundly scolded by his watchful parents. 

 To my surprise, on my coming near, he only opened wide his beak and began 

 begging lustily to be fed, even permitting me to stroke him with my finger, 

 which he soon accepted as a perch. All the time I was expecting the old 

 people to attack me, and soon became quite disgusted at such apparent 

 negligence. 



While I was trying to decide whether he were Robin or Jay, a lady came 

 from a cottage near-by in search of her cat. She at once disagreed with my 

 poor opinion of the little fellow's family, and said that he had been kidnapped 

 by thoughtless children, who fed him for a time, then, something proving 

 more interesting, they had forsaken him. She was ready to back her opinion 

 by testifying to having seen some children poking cornmeal and water down the 

 throats of what they called "young Robins." 



After waiting about an hour, we decided that the little bird was truly 

 alone in the world, and, while able to fly a few feet at a time, he with- 

 out doubt had not the slightest idea of any other use for his beak than 

 to open it full size, with perfect confidence that it would be properly filled, 

 if he only chirped loud enough and begged hard enough with his pretty 

 little wings. 



Dear little fluff of feathers! He seemed to know from the first that he 

 could coax me into anything. We soon found that the choice must be made 

 between leaving him there, as a meal for kitty, and bringing him home to 

 feed him. This question was no sooner presented than decided, and he was 

 soon adopted and named Ezekiel. 



Very soon Zeke, as we more often called him, was the chief attraction in 



