TIO 
SLARLIGH LT AND SUNSHINE. 
mud-builders are often at the mercy 
7" of the storm; a possible fate which 
is not always anticipated in the se- 
lection of a building site. In the 
case of the swallow beneath the 
eaves, and the phcebe under the 
bridge, the home is safe, but the 
robin occasionally pays a heavy 
penalty for the daring exposure of 
its nest, the fair structure of the 
. sunshine literally melting away 
in the rain. During the past wet sea- 
son two such mishaps occurred upon 
my lawn, the nests having disintegrated 
and fallen in shapeless masses, scatter- 
ing the egg contents upon the ground. 
Recently I chanced upon another 
reckless nest, that of the yellow-billed 
cuckoo, or rain-crow, in the top of 
an apple-tree —if, indeed, the loose 
pile of sticks could be dignified by 
the name of nest at all, being more 
suggestive of a gridiron, through which 
the outlines of the head and the long 
projecting tail of the bird were distinctly 
perceptible against the sky. «As I climbed 
