THE MOCKING-BIRD. 
75 
to their nests, leaving the poor cat-bird still 
fluttering about in an agony of alarm. 
You may easily imagine that a bird, with 
such a disposition, would not behave harshly 
under any circumstances. 
A naturalist once took two eggs out of the 
nest, while the cat-bird was away, and put in 
their stead two others belonging to a thrush. 
He then stood at a convenient distance, and 
watched to see what would happen. In a 
few minutes the cat-bird came back, and hop- 
ping on the side of the nest, looked earnestly 
at the strange eggs. They puzzled him very 
much indeed, and he evidently knew, in a 
moment, that they had no business there. He 
flew to his mate, who was not far off* ; and 
held a long conversation with her, as if he 
were telling her all about it. Then he 
returned to the nest, and taking up one of 
the strange eggs, he lifted it out, and laid it 
among the bushes ; he did the same with the 
other ; and the naturalist was so well satisfied 
with his behaviour, that he restored the right 
eggs to their place, and the mother bird came 
and sat upon them. 
Another time, the same naturalist took two 
