eating(?) stuffed BIRDS. I 1 7 
with richly penciled light and dark breast. He 
had such a fearless face, and such keen, flashing 
eyes, Mrs. Maxwell did not like to kill him, so 
she took him into the bird-house, and, as they 
would say on the plains, “ lariatted ” him to the 
antler of an elk. For two days he hopped about 
in a restless, discontented fashion, spending his 
energies in pulling on his string. Then he tried 
another plan. He seemed to have reasoned it 
all out, just as anybody would have done: he 
began and very persistently picked it to pieces. 
As soon as he was at liberty, he attempted to 
gratify his instinct for preying upon other birds, 
by capturing and devouring a few that were 
perched in his prison. As they were stuffed, the 
first part of his task was not difficult, but the lat- 
ter part — Mrs. Maxwell would have given some- 
thing for his verdict upon the quality and flavor 
of her dressing, though it didn’t seem to agree 
with him. He must have been capable of an 
opinion, for if he didn’t reason about that string, 
what did he do ? Why did it take instinct two 
days to tell him it could be picked to pieces ? 
His prison, the bird-house, was not such an 
uninteresting affair as places of confinement are 
usually supposed to be. Mrs. Maxwell’s family 
called it her “ den.” It was a small building a 
little distance from the house, made expressly for 
her work-room, and what a curiosity-shop it soon 
