interrogative was, for excellent reasons, 

 not definitely answered. 



in. 



For several days succeeding the last 

 outing the children entertained themselves 

 playing they were a rat and a flicker, 

 the different roles being taken alternately 

 by the two children. Henceforth the 

 daughter, albeit but four years old, had a 

 real interest in the flicker. Six weeks 

 later her father held her on his shoulder 

 that she might witness the feeding of a 

 young golden-wing by its parent. She 

 took the matter most seriously, obviously 

 afraid that they baby bird was being very 

 badly treated, but when her father ex- 

 plained that the parent was simply pump- 

 ing food out of his own crop into the 

 infant's the child counted it a great joke 

 and has never tired telling it to her small 

 brother. 



During the first week of May the bird 

 students spent a great deal of time and 

 energy following the tiny yellow warblers 

 who flitted about so constantly as to be 

 rather perplexing. The birds have since 

 become so very common that it seems 

 mpst laughable to reflect upon those days 

 when the patience of the enthusiasts was 

 so greatly tried. It must be confessed, 

 however, that the nest of these birds was 

 sought a long time before it was found; 

 and would have been overlooked even 

 then but for the perturbation of the par- 

 ent birds, who objected most decidedly 

 to the passage of beast, bird or man by 

 a certain group of lilac bushes. All the 

 poor little things could do when a mon- 

 ster man actually approached their dwell- 

 ing was to keep up an incessant cry right 

 in his ear, as if begging him, to have 

 mercy. Indeed they were so close as to 

 be several times within reach of his arm, 

 as he stood upon tiptoe and peered in 

 upon a tiny bird — their only child. The 

 baby, so small and helpless, was already 

 clad in a coat of sparrow-like feathers ; 

 but the observer stayed not to look upon 

 him, being anxious to allay the fears of 

 the parents. 



Two days later when a call was made 

 the fledgling was alone, but when a 

 strange human face was presented at the 

 nest, he gave a leap and fell to the 

 ground. It was a moment of excitement 



for the babies, feathered baby and human 

 babies, and indeed for the parents, who 

 quickly put the bold birdie back where he 

 belonged. He did not stay there, how- 

 ever, but asserted his independence by 

 perching upon the side of the nest, where, 

 strange to say, he remained silent instead 

 of wailing lustily and making his inno- 

 cent assailants feel like kidnapers. 



Four days later, when the baby was not 

 more than ten days old, the nest was de- 

 serted. He was quite a youth to go out 

 into the world, but his spirit was noble 

 and it is to be hoped he met with no 

 harm. The children proudly carried the 

 nest home in a small box. It is a soft 

 structure, measuring less than two inches 

 in diameter. The outside is of bark 

 fibers, while the lining is hair and a sort 

 of wool, coarser than that which covers 

 the horse-chestnut buds when they open. 

 The children puzzled themselves about 

 the little home and the birds who had dis- 

 carded it. The elder child wanted to 

 know where the little baby was when its 

 papa and mamma were building that 

 nest. 



IV. 



The dandelion season was passing and 

 there was a feeling of guilty relief among 

 mothers who cherish the beauty of these 

 blossoms, but who do not like the stains 

 they leave upon the hands and frocks of 

 little people. "The field of the cloth of 

 gold" was hardly missed, the dandelions 

 being so promptly replaced by the sweet- 

 scented white clovers and the buttercups. 



During the last week in May these 

 flowers appeared in the haunts of the 

 bird-lovers, and the children were happily 

 engaged picking them. The extra free- 

 dom this gave their parents led to the dis- 

 covery of the rose-breasted grossbeak, 

 the brown thrasher and the Baltimore 

 oriole, a group notable for song and for 

 beauty. The grossbeak's notes were 

 liquid melody, very sweet and pleasing, 

 but not so clear, so exhilarating, so glad- 

 dening as the thrasher's, nor so bold as 

 the oriole's. The mother enjoyed trans- 

 lating the oriole's notes into words, but 

 the father thought this pure sentiment — 

 not to say nonsense. He agreed that one 

 oriole seemed to say: "I love you, dear, 

 a little/' but denied that it was in answer 

 to the words of a proud male : "If you 



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