20 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



prowess, with crimson-streaked crest, 

 doubles and darts in his keen pur- 

 suit of bees, and the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo, with sturdy neck, cries grat- 

 ingly, "Kuk, kuk, kuk," as he probes 

 the caterpillar from the meshes of 

 his retreat. The cedar bird, whose 

 quaker coat is relieved by waxy red- 

 tipped wings, builds his deep, soft- 

 lined nest, thinking meanwhile of 

 laden cherry trees; and in the tufts of 

 grass out in the open, hovering above 

 a nest that is merely a heap of twigs, 

 the bobolink calls in a perfect ecstasy : 

 "Bobolink o'wadolink, winterseeble- 

 see me-see me-see ! " The towhee hops 

 among the bushes to lead you from his 

 nest, flashing his wings and tail like 

 Jenny Wren, and darting just above; 

 his little prototype, the redstart, with 

 breeze-ruffed feathers, seizes a tiny 

 moth, and through the branches 



