DAILY DOINGS 



June 14. Down at the end of the lawn where the 

 ground dips into a sudden hollow, where the under- 

 brush is thick and the brambles wave effectively their 

 thorny branches, I discovered to my great delight a 

 yellow-billed cuckoo's nest with four eggs in it this 

 morning. The coarse nest lay about three feet from 

 the ground in a beautiful tangle, and the mother bird 

 flew only six feet or so away uttering her soft protests 

 apologetically at my intrusion. Three years ago al- 

 most to a day we watched a cuckoo feeding her young 

 within twenty-five feet of this nest. The next morn- 

 ing when I brought down my kodak two tiny birds were 

 in the nest and one was just coming out of the shell. 

 It did look odd to see such young birds entirely covered 

 with pin feathers. I longed to linger and watch the 

 little family but the poor mother cuckoo was so un- 

 happy and anxious that I went away. 



June 15. Among my other June duties is the 

 one of removing the cowbird's egg from the vari- 

 ous nests where the unnatural mother places them. 

 I go from bush to bush each morning looking 



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