ole impression one got from the nest and its contents
was of something inept and fortuitous. But the cares of a family woke
the parents up and they got down to real work in caring for their
charge.

The young had a curious, unbirdlike aspect with threadlike yellow
stripes, and looked as if they were wet or just out of the shell.

That strain of parasitism in the blood of the cuckoo--how long in the
history of its race since it mastered it and became its own
nest-builder? But a crude and barbarous nest-builder it certainly is.
Its "procreant cradle" is built entirely of the twigs of the thorn-tree,
with all their sharp needle-like spines upon them, some of the twigs a
foot long, bristling with spines, certainly the most forbidding-looking
nest and nursery I ever beheld--a mere platform of twigs about four
inches across, carpeted with a little shredded brown fibrous material,
looking as if made from the inner bark of some tree, perhaps this very
thorn.

In the total absence of the tent caterpillar or apple-tree worm, which
is their favorite food, cuckoos seem to succeed in finding a large green
worm here in the orchard. In the beech woods they can find a forest worm
that is riddling the leaves of the beeches. The robins are there in
force and I hope the cuckoos will join them in the destruction of the
worms. It is interesting to see the cuckoo fly by several times a day
with a big green worm in its beak. Inefficient as it seems, here it is
doing things. It is like seeing a monk at the plough-handle. It is a
solemn creature; its note is almost funereal.

Our indigo bunting is as artful and secretive about its nesting-habits
as any of the sparrows. The male bird seems to know that his brilliant
color makes him a shining mark, and he keeps far away from the nest,
singing at all hours of the day in a circle around it, the radius of
which must be more than fifty yards. In one instance the nest was near
the house, almost under the clothes-line, in a low blackberry-bush,
partly masked by tall-growing daisies and timothy. I chanced to pass
near it, when off went the little brown bird with her sharp, chiding
manners. She is a very emphatic creature. It is yea and nay with her
every time.

The male seems like a bit of the tropics. He is not a very pleasing
singer, but an all-day one and an all-summer one. He is one of our rarer
birds. In a neighborhood where you see scores of sparrows and
goldfinches you will see only one pai