where storms originate. The peacock 

 was thought by its cry to give an indica- 

 tion of a change in the weather. Juno 

 once became very angry with Argus, so 

 she took from him his many eyes and 

 placed them in the plumage of her favor- 

 ite bird ; hence the lovely eyes which 

 decorate the peacock's tail. The cuckoo 

 was also one of her symbols." 



"And a rascally bird it is," cried 

 Johnnie, "slipping its eggs into the nests 

 of other birds, and sometimes tossing 

 their eggs out to make room for its 

 own." 



"You forget," said Alice, "that the 

 honey-bird belongs to the cuckoo family. 

 It has the same bad habit of imposing 

 its eggs upon other birds to hatch, but 

 it steals the young birds and rears them 

 itself. It is wonderful how it guides 

 man to the honey tree, and, it is said, 

 hovers over the tree and even points 

 fixedly at all. It's also curious how 

 wise the bees are to know they can not 

 sting through the feathers, so they at- 

 tack the eyes of the honey guide." 



/T know," interrupted Birdie, "what 

 the cow-bird says when he sings ; it is 

 this : 'Fidgety, fidgety, fidgety.' " 



"I know w^hat the cat-bird says," cried 

 Madge. "It changes from 'quirt, quirt' 

 to 'tut-tut ;' 'mew, mew ;' crack-rack- 

 rack,' but its regular song is dififerent." 



"The Chewink says : 'Don't-ye-wink' 

 'don't-ye-wink,' " added Edith, and the 

 golden crowned thrush cries, 'teacher; 

 teacher.' " 



"What a silly goose," said Howard, 

 "to call for a teacher. He don't know 

 when he is well of¥. When I was in 

 Texas I heard a weather lark sing 'lazi- 

 ness will kill you; laziness will kill 

 you.' " 



"Oh, Howard, it was just your con- 

 science; he never sang that at all, you 

 imagined it," shouted the children. 



"Yfs, but he did, though. Everyone 

 besides myself heard him, and agreed 

 that that was what he sang. But if 

 you will all stop laughing at me I will 

 tell you about the butcher bird." 



"Do, do," they all cried. 



"The butcher bird catches beetles, 

 mice and small birds, spears them to 

 death on thorns, and hansrs his victims 



upon them in regular butcher fashion." 



"What a naughty bird," cried the 

 children in a chorus. 



"The California woodpecker must be 

 a vegetarian," said Aunt Jane. "He 

 covers large sections of trees with 

 acorns, firmly driven in for his winter 

 use. A friend told me that the acorns 

 were known to have l^een carried at 

 least sixty miles. There is mdustry for 

 you." 



"Aunt Jane," said John, "can't you 

 think of some other bird besides the ibis 

 which is a snake hunter?" 



"I have read a description of a very 

 peculiar one,'' she repHed. "It is called 

 the pairsano, or road-runner. It has a 

 long tail and a long sharp beak. It can 

 kill a rattle-snake in a fair right, but it 

 likes to use strategy. It finds a sleeping 

 rattle-snake and goes quietly to work- 

 building a wall about the snake out of 

 spiny cactus. When it has finished the 

 enclosure it strikes the snake with its 

 sharp beak, which awakens, and makes 

 the snake angry, so the snake coils for 

 a spring, then seeks to retreat, but find- 

 ing no outlet strikes against the thornv 

 wall of the cactus again and again, until, 

 in despair, he sinks his fangs in his own 

 bodv, thus killing himself." 



"The secretary-bird, so-called because 

 he has a tuft of feathers on his head 

 which looks like quill pens behind the 

 ear, also kills snakes, and without injury 

 to himself, because he is wise enough to 

 use his wing as a shield upon which the 

 poison of the snake has no eflfect." 



"I don't like snake-killing birds ; tell 

 us about some nicer ones," cried Birdie. 



"No; tell us about some worse ones, 

 tell us about the horned guardian-birds," 

 begged John. 



"They are not an engaging class of 

 birds, I assure you, but they are very 

 useful to poor animals, who could 

 scarcely live without them in hot cli- 

 mates. There is the ziczac, or crocodile 

 bird, which not only frightens away the 

 enemies of the crocodile, but also re- 

 lieves it of the leeches which infest it. 

 It is said to even go on this errand 

 into the mouth of the crocodile and 

 escape unharmed." 



"Ugh ! It has more faith in a croco- 



