ffled up, sat there, the picture of content. Indeed, the little fellow
looked more at home than I had ever seen him anywhere. The rescuer was
itching to put the little princes back in their hole, to see what they
would do, but I wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to have gotten
them out once.

When Bairdi was on the bark and Jacob was put below him, he turned his
head, raised his red cap, and looked down at his brother in a very
winning way.

Soon the photographer came, and asked, "Are these the little chaps that
try to swallow your fingers?" We were afraid they would not sit still
enough to get good likenesses, but we had taken the precaution to give
them a hearty breakfast just before starting, and they were too sleepy
to move much. In the picture, Jacob is clinging to the boy's hand in his
favorite way, and Bairdi is on the tree trunk.

Mountain Billy pricked up his ears when he discovered the woodpeckers
down at the sycamore, but he often saw them up at the ranch and took me
to make a farewell call on them before I left for the East. We found the
birds perched on the tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a
tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could take them in at
night. Their cup of bread and milk stood on the ladder, and when I
called them they came over to be fed. They were both so strong and well
that they would soon be able to care for themselves, as their fathers
had done before them. And when they were ready to fly, they might have
help; for an old woodpecker of their family--possibly an unknown
uncle--had been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring oak,
and may have been just waiting to adopt the little orphans. In any case,
however they were to start out in the world, it was a great satisfaction
to have rescued them from their prison tower.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] The difference in the dress of the woodpeckers is so slight that the
sexes were not distinguished at this nest.

VI.

HINTS BY THE WAY.

ON our way back and forth along the line of oaks and sycamores belonging
to the little prisoners, the little lover, and the gnatcatchers,
Mountain Billy and I got a good many hints, he of places to graze, and I
of new nests to watch.

While waiting for the woodpeckers one day I saw a small brownish bird
flying busily back and forth to some green weeds. She was joined by her
mate, a handsome blue lazuli bunting, even more beautiful than our
lovely indigo bunting, and he f