440 
edge. He flew across the road, to a tree 
near the track, and I was about to fol- 
low him, when my eye fell upon another, 
on the fence beyond, and on ws alking 
slowly toward him I discovered a sec- 
ond, and then a third. Three of the 
beauties on a fence a little way apart— 
there was, then, a family! I stood and 
gazed. 
The back and head of the birds, as 
I could then plainly see, were a little 
darker shade of the delicate blue-gray, 
with the same soft, fluffy look I had 
noticed on the breast. ‘The wings were 
black, and somewhat elaborately marked 
with white. The beak, that tell-tale 
feature which reveals the secret of a 
bird’s life, was not long, but thick, and 
black as jet, and the dark eye was set in 
a heavy black band across the side of the 
head. The combination of black and 
gray was very effective, and closer ac- 
quaintance did not modify my first 
LITTLE STRANGERS UI “Gicay, 
opinion of the little stranger ; he was a 
bonny bird with clear, open gaze, grace- 
ful in every movement, and innocent 
and sweet in life I wassure, and am still 
—in spite of— 
But let me tell my story. While I 
was noting these things I heard the cries 
e a bird- “baby behind me. The voice 
ras strange to me, and of a curiously 
Hate quality. I turned hastily, and 
there, on the telegraph pole, was the 
baby in gray, receiving his supper from 
one of his parents, and crying over it as 
do many feathered little folk—one more 
of the mysterious family. 
There were then five in sight at once, 
and at least three of them were infants 
lately out of the nest, hardly taught to 
feed themselves, yet the most sedate 
head of the household was no more dig- 
nified and grown-up in manner than was 
the youngest of them ; for when he had 
cried over his repast and descended to 
Whe ene 
ENG SAME = 
ene Sie 
Fano 
A tug of war. 
