nearer, till I was not more than six feet from
them, and could see them clearly, while they remained perfectly
self-possessed for ten or fifteen minutes that I stood there. So near
was I that I could see the white eyelids, and the tiny feet, which
seemed hardly strong enough to hold them on their perch, and explained
their preference for wires to rest on.

[Sidenote: _FEATHERS OR FUR?_]

One of the little fellows had his back to me, showing the beautiful
white markings on his wings as they lie closed and folded together. Near
the end of them were white lines making on the black feathers a figure
resembling what is known in needlework as a "crow's-foot," perhaps an
inch in width, and, a little above this, two dainty waved bars met like
a pair of eye-brows. The marking was elegant in the extreme.

While I looked, the bird nearest me suddenly lost what little interest
he had in my doings, turned his eyes downward, and in a moment dropped
upon a big grasshopper, which he carried in his beak to a wire near the
ground to dispose of. Evidently, however, he was not quite ready to eat,
for he deliberately lifted one foot, took the grasshopper in his claw,
and instantly ejected upon the ground a dark-colored bolus, I should
judge half an inch in diameter, and more than twice as long. Then he
returned to his grasshopper and made short work of it.

This seemed only to sharpen his appetite, for in a moment he dragged out
from the grass something which startled me. Was it feathers or fur or a
bit of old rag?

I could soon tell, for he was not in the least ashamed or secretive
about it. He pulled it to where a fallen wire lay very near the ground,
threw it partly over the wire, plainly as a hold to pull against, and
then jerked off a mouthful, which he ate. Again and again did he fling
it over the wire, for it soon slipped off, and it was perfectly plain
that the object was to give him purchase to pull against. Then I could
see small legs on the fragment, and a tail like a mouse's. While I stood
watching this feast in progress, a call came from across the road. It
was not loud, and it was of a quality hard to express, not exactly
harsh, nor yet musical. It was instantly answered by the two on the
fence, and the one I was watching dropped his fresh meat and joined his
parent. Then I examined the remains of his meat, and found that it had
reddish brown fur, a tail not so long but resembling that of a mouse. It
was on the borders of