19

Great White Heron. _Ardea occidentalis._
Bald Eagle. _Haliaeetus leucocephalus._
Wilson's Tern. _Sterna hirundo._
Ring Plover. _AEgialitis hiaticula._

III. THE MOCKING-BIRD'S NEST 33

Mocking-Bird. _Mimus polyglottos._

IV. A TRICKSY SPIRIT 65

Mocking-Bird. _Mimus polyglottos._

V. THE "WISE BLUEBIRD" 95

Bluebird. _Sialia sialis._

VI. THE GOLDEN-WING 113

Golden-Wing Woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._

VII. A STORMY WOOING 129

Orchard Oriole. _Icterus spurius._

VIII. FLUTTERBUDGET 145

Brown Thrush, or Thrasher. _Harporhynchus rufus._

IX. "O WONDROUS SINGERS" 159

Wilson's Thrush. _Turdus fuscescens._
Gray-Cheeked Thrush. _Turdus aliciae._

X. A BIRD OF AFFAIRS 173

Blue-Jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._

XI. THE BLUE-JAY AGAIN 189

XII. VIRGINIA'S WOOING 205

Virginia Cardinal. _Cardinalis cardinalis._

XIII. FRIENDSHIP IN FEATHERS 221

Scarlet Tanager. _Piranga erythromelas._
English Goldfinch. _Fringilla carduelis._

XIV. THE ROSY SHIELD 237

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. _Habia ludoviciana._

XV. THE BIRD OF MYSTERY 251

Birds of Paradise. _Paradisaea._

BABY BIRDS.

And oft an unintruding guest,
I watched her secret toils from day to day;
How true she warped the moss to form the nest,
And modeled it within with wood and clay.
And by and by, like heath-bells gilt with dew,
There lay her shining eggs as bright as flowers,
Ink-spotted over, shells of green and blue:
And there I witnessed in the summer hours
A brood of Nature's minstrels chirp and fly,
Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky.

JOHN CLARE.

I.

BABY BIRDS.

"Ears have they, but they hear not," may be said of all the world.
Tragedies and comedies go on continually before us which we neither see
nor hear; cries of