The remaining one was now larger and farther developed than his mate 

 at my home and by this time, had a few white quills on his back. He moved 

 about uneasily, and seemed to have his eyes open, but of that I could not be sure, 

 looking through the mirror. He pushed himself to the edge and voided excreta 

 upon the weeds below the tree where, contrary to the observations of Jean 

 Stratton Porter, there were seven or eight droppings. 



On the evening of August 8th the nest was empty. The old bird was near, 

 but manifested less rather than more of her customary anxiety, if so calm and 

 dignified a bird can be said ever to exhibit anxiety. She called no more than 

 usual and gradually worked her way farther from the tree instead of remaining 

 near enough to keep an eye on my movements. It scarcely seemed probable that 

 the young one could have been able to leave the nest even if, after the way of his 

 species, his feathers had burst into bloom all in one day. He was eight and a 

 half, and may have been nine and a half days old, and it is barely possible that 

 he may have departed without protest and without tragedy. 



The voice of the parent was heard in the vicinity for three or four weeks 

 longer. Among the sticks of the shallow platform which had served him for a 

 cradle were small bits of the shell that had encased him, now faded almost to 

 robin's-egg blue. 



The bird I took home to study was as ugly a specimen as could well be; 

 black from tip to toe, except the dark wine-colored under and edges of the upper 

 mandible, big-bodied, stupid in the morning and voracious in the afternoon, 

 voiding instantly after swallowing, making that faint hissing and a little quirt, 

 quirt, sleeping with head laid flat before him like an aligator, and occasionally 

 moving it from side to side in serpent-like manner ; utterly ugly except his mouth 

 which, when wide open was cup-shape and red, with cream-colored knobs in it 

 making it look like a red flower with sessile yellow stamens. The legs were black, 

 the toes were black, two of them standing forward, two back, like the toes of a 

 woodpecker. The wings were little flat, crooked sticks such as might be sawed out 

 of a black shingle ; and he let them hang down like legs, even using them to prop 

 himself up, and two or three times fairly standing on "all fours." When he ate 

 he sat up as straight as a Penguin, resting on the back part of his body, tarsi 

 flat out in front of him and toes clutching the flannel cloth in the bottom of his 

 box, to balance himself. When he raised his head there was a perpendicular 

 line from the tip of his bill down the under part of his body to the box in which 

 he sat. 



After about three days he began to fold his wings to his sides and now and 

 then to stretch and even to flap them. The hissing gradually merged toward 

 the hungry cry of young birds when being fed. The cilia on the edges of his 

 wings and tail became bristles and then tiny, white-tipped feather-cases; and from 

 his chin down each side of his bare under-body, curving upward to the tail came 

 three or four overlapping rows of minute white quills or cases, making his look, 

 when he sat up, as though he had on a cutaway coat. These began to show 



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