A BIT OF BIRD GOSSIP. 



The sun shone brightly through the 

 green leaves of the trees and crowned 

 each tiny ripple on the lake with a glisten- 

 ing diamond. A Robin Redbreast 

 hopped along the shore, picking up a few 

 pebbles, for the poor thing has to wear 

 her false teeth in her stomach, as it were, 

 having no teeth in her head with which to 

 chew her food. 



There was a rush of wings above her 

 and she dropped the grain of sand with 

 which she had thought to fill up her giz- 

 zard, cocked her smooth black head on 

 one side and watched the approach of an- 

 other bird. Was it friend or enemy ? It 

 proved to belong to the aristocratic fam- 

 ily of Thrushes — real high-flyers among 

 birds — who alighted on the same sandy 

 shore and advanced 'Svith many a flirt 

 and flutter" to greet her old friend, for 

 they had been neighbors in the same 

 sunny orchard the year before. 



''So glad to meet you again, Mrs. Red- 

 breast," said the gracious Thrush in a 

 most musical voice, ''but are you not a 

 long way from the willows on the river 

 bank wdiere I last had the pleasure of see- 

 ing you?" 



"Oh, we never finished that house 

 among the willows. We became dissatis- 

 fied with the neighborhood," answered 

 Mrs. Redbreast, after performing the 

 graceful courtesy of a well-bred bird, as 

 are all Robin Redbreasts. 



''Ah, I was afraid of malaria when we 

 looked the ground over together in the 

 spring. It was too low, almost swampy. 

 Mr. Thrush and I went to a little knoll 

 abv.ut three miles away and built in the 

 loveliest, the most fragrant wild crabap- 

 ple tree you ever saw," and Mrs. Thrush 

 smoothed with shining beak a mottled 

 feather on her handsome breast. 



"But w^ould not those lovely blossoms 

 tempt those creatures — boys, I think they 

 are called — to climb until they found 

 your home?" 



"The thorns stand sentinel and the 

 thick leaves hide it well, and I wanted my 

 children to grow up strong, and swift on 

 the wing. They would never grow up 

 well feathered and beautiful amid those 



lovely willows on account of the low 

 ground," replied the Thrush. 



"It was not malaria that caused us to 

 abandon our half-built nest, but boys, 

 some black as crows and some white as 

 doves, kept coming to get materials for 

 whistles. It seems that the very tree we 

 chose had bark that slipped the easiest, 

 and sometimes a flock of three or four 

 would be perched on the limbs (they al- 

 ways sit astride, so awkwardly, you 

 know), with jack-knives in their hands, 

 and of course we could not stay. Robin 

 wanted to come to the park — it is a lovely 

 place — where those fine big creatures with 

 bright stars on their gray coats are put to 

 take care of us birds. Why," she went 

 on, "they will not let boys stone even an 

 English Sparrow, but I think that is al- 

 together too particular. There comes a 

 party of the little cockneys now," as a 

 handful of winged brown balls came flut- 

 tering through the air close to the heads 

 of the larger birds, who could easily have 

 put them to flight if they would but try. 

 However, they ducked their heads and 

 scampered into the weeds, leaving the 

 smooth shore to the new-comers, who 

 dipped and splashed in the shallow edge 

 of the lake as if they enjoyed it mightily. 



"Just see the horrid little things wash- 

 ing themselves in water, but they never 

 can gei" clean. Why, my Robin, who is 

 a very venturesome fellow and sometimes 

 follows the boulevards almost into the 

 heart of the cit>, jays that he has seen 

 them in the dirty city streets washing 

 themselves in the dust like common barn- 

 yard fowls." 



"Don't let's look at them," exclaimed 

 Mrs. Thrush. "They are doing it just 

 because it looks respectable, and they 

 know that we wash in water ;" and the 

 two birds spread their wings and swept 

 disdainfully away from the neighborhood 

 of the Sparrows. 



"And where did you finally build, Mrs. 

 Redbreast ?" asked the other as they set- 

 tled gracefully on the shore a half a mile 

 away. 



"Well, Robin, as I said, wanted very 

 much to live in the park. He is so fond 

 of company, but I told him there w-ere too 



115 



