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wings, a white breast and long-rounded tail-feathers 

 tipped with white outwardly, is the Cuckoo ; his shrill 

 note is occasionally heard in hedges round your city. 

 Unlike his European congener, his habits as a parent 

 are unimpeachable ; you never catch him depositing 

 eggs in other birds' nests, foundlings at other indivi- 

 duals' doors ; this shabby, unnatural practice may suit 

 his Cockney Cousin, or our Cow-pen bird ; but dandy, 

 merry Cuckoo is too excellent a gentleman, too kind- 

 hearted a fellow, to desert his offspring. We have two 

 Cuckoos in Canada, the Yellow-billed and the Black- 

 billed. Next to him you notice a bird encased in a sleek, 

 lustrous, black doublet, with gold and crimsou shoul- 

 der-straps, a rifleman in uniform amongst the feathered 

 tribe : that is the Red- winged Starling : is he not a 

 jaunty, military-looking son of song ? sporting Spaulettes, 

 he ought to stand well with the ladies ; doubtless his 

 name of Field Officer is due to their admiration of his 

 gaudy tunic. There sits Eobin Redbreast. What nice 

 anecdotes I could tell you about him, my familiar friend, 

 who returns each spring to nestle in a bushy evergreen 

 under my library window, notwithstanding several 

 murderous raids made in the vicinity, in the dead of 

 night, by some marauding grimalkin. 



Allow me to introduce to you a brave, indomitable 

 bird, the King-Bird (Tyrant fly-catcher) ; the French 

 Canadian peasantry call him Tri-tri, from his rapid, 

 querulous note ; schoolboys know him as the Crow- 

 beater. Observe the little orange tuft of feathers in the 

 centre of his top-knot. Next to him you notice a bird 

 with a beak notched like a Falcon : take my word for 

 it, that is a sanguinary villain. Naturalists call him 

 " The Shrike ", or Butcher Bird, from the remorseless 

 manner in which he deals with small birds, whom he 

 impales on thorns and tears to pieces : I wonder how 

 he can rest at night after such enormities. Mr. Shrike, 

 you are a vile fellow ! That grey, rough-coated bird is a 

 Canada Jay ; the lumberers and woodmen, who see 



