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dancing \\;iter can tell that sky-blue and silvery creature poised above- 

 him from the sky and clouds? If he could, the kingfisher would often 

 go hungry. Why is he called the "belted Idngfisher"? Where does 

 he nest? I expect we would find his nest over there in a hole in that 

 dry, sandy bank, for the kingfisher is one of our burrowini;- birds. 

 There is an interesting legend about him, and the poets have sung 

 about him under his other name, the "Halcyon." See if you can find 

 out what they tell of him. Write a color description of him as you 

 did of the other birds. 



Biit let us go back to the school yard and see if we can discover 

 what birds have foimd a vessel of water we placed there for their use. 

 What is that slender, quick-moving bird? The cat-bird, you all say.- 

 What a strange name. Irritate him and see if you can not find how 

 he got that name. But if we find out more about him we will have 

 to follow him over into that secluded corner of the pasture. Xow 

 listen to his song. Did you ever hear anything finer? It is one of the 

 best in the world. Does it resemble the song of any of the birds that 

 we have met in our walks? Think carefully and listen carefully be- 

 fore you answer. 



Now, listen to the cat-bird talk, the soft "chuck" and "mew" in aU 

 tones. I wish, he would give us his wonderful whisper song. There, 

 his mate has seen us. She says, "Sing lower — lower — lower."' Now 

 we can hardly hear him, and we are not more than ten feet distant, 

 but we can see him and get his description for our picture gallery 

 of spring birds. ISTote the color of his back, breast and head. See if 

 you can see a patch of chestnut-brown anywhere about him. He 

 seems very happy now. See him sit and swing and sing on the willows 

 by yonder little brook. Don't you think him handsome? His beauty 

 does not make him a favorite, however. What is the cause of that? 

 Well, like the human family, his unsocial habits and the way he has 

 of skulking off by himself have excited a prejudice against him which 

 is not unfounded, for I caught a cat-bird last summer perched upon 

 the rim of a pewee's nest, ha.stily devouring the eggs. I was so vexed 

 vrith her that I killed her on the spot, but I regretted it heartily when 

 I found that she had a well-constructed nest of her own in a tree not 

 far from the house, and five lovely deep greenish-blue eggs in it. 



But here we are near the corner where we must separate. 



How many birds have we met and described in our walks? Name 

 them, if you can. Have we met others? "Many of them." How 

 many do you suppose can be seen in the State of Indiana alone? Over 

 three hundred different species, and of these about one hundred and 



