one of an army of soldiers marching to- 

 ward a given point, and leaving here 

 and there a detachment, for as it mi- 

 grates bands of varying numbers leave 

 the main body and establish nesting 

 places along the way. 



As with others of the sparrow family, 

 the Dickcissel is a very valuable de- 

 stroyer of noxious insects ; especially is 

 it the enemy of the dreaded canker 



worm, and according to Professor S. A. 

 Forbes, eight out of eleven birds were 

 found to have eaten these caterpillars, 

 and this larva furnished about seventy 

 per cent of the bird's diet. They also 

 eat grasshoppers and other insects fre- 

 quenting the vicinity of meadows, be- 

 sides some seeds. This is another spe- 

 cies which the farmer and agriculturist 

 will do well to protect. 



Collins Thurber. 



A CHILD OF THE FOREST 



It was early in the spring, before the 

 giant cotton-woods on the river bank 

 had put forth their glittering leaves to 

 the sun, when Billy first made his appear- 

 ance on the lonely Arkansas plantation. 

 He was the gentlest of little fawns, with 

 a pair of the loveliest sad brown eyes that 

 ever looked up wistfully in search of a 

 friendly face, and a pale drab, velvety 

 coat all pied with dapplings of silvery 

 white. A neighbor of ours having killed 

 the mother in some hunting expedition, 

 had captured the little one and presented 

 it to my oldest sister, then a young lady, 

 and from the time of his arrival to that 

 of his tragic death, about two years later, 

 Billy diversified with lively incident the 

 monotonous plantation days. 



Shy and shrinking at first, he w^as 

 much fondled and spoiled, a bed was 

 made for him in the house and he was 

 fed on milk and other experimental deli- 

 cacies, until he learned to eat most things 

 that we did, with a decided and some- 

 times inconvenient preference for cake. 



Affectionate as a pet lamb, but full of 

 a wild, strange intelligence, as he grew 

 •older, he became very familiar with mem- 

 bers of the family, as willful as a petted 

 child ^ and as frisky as a kitten. His 

 keen senses alert to things which our dull 

 human eyes and ears and noses had not 

 the least perception of, his wild nature 

 breaking out through his domesticated 

 habits in a thousand fantastic pranks and 

 gambols, his love for us never failing to 

 the day of his death, he was altogether 



a sensitive, high-strung, and noble crea- 

 ture. 



The first night that he was put outside 

 to sleep on the long, vine-covered porch,, 

 he kept us awake by his low, unhappy 

 whimperings, and by tapping persistently 

 on the window with his foot. But he 

 soon grew used to the change and slept 

 very peacefully except when some unus- 

 ual influence disturbed him. 



Rain always seemed to fill him with 

 a wild elemental delight. For hours be- 

 fore the coming of a storm, he was 

 stirred by a strange expectant restless- 

 ness. He would come into the house and; 

 stretch himself out dog-like on the floor,, 

 but in a few minutes he would be up- 

 again, pace softly to the door, and look- 

 ing out with ears erect and eyes dilated, 

 stand braced in a posture of intense alert- 

 ness — every sense apparently open to in- 

 fluences of which we were unaware. 

 Then he would come quietly back and 

 lie down again, but only to start up once 

 more and pace up and down the long 

 white porch, all the while full of suspense 

 and tense excitement. When at last the 

 storm came, he was in his element. He 

 would rush out into the rain, tear round 

 and round the house, up and down and 

 about in the maddest abandonment of 

 delight — to come in after he had finished 

 his frolic and perhaps jump straight into 

 the middle of the first inviting feather 

 bed that offered itself, leaving prints of 

 his wet sides and muddy feet all over 

 the clean white spread. 



149 



