rformance he made fine display of the inside of his mouth and throat,
which looked, from where I stood, like black satin.

The calls he made while I watched him sounded so far off that if I had
not been within six feet of him, and seen him make them, I should never
have suspected him:--

"A cry
Which made me look a thousand ways,
In bush and tree and sky."

Finding that his voice did not drive me away, the bird resorted to
another method; he tried intimidation. First he threw himself into a
most curious attitude, humping his shoulders and opening his tail like a
fan, then spreading his wings and resting the upper end of them on his
tail, which made at the back a sort of scoop effect. Every time he
uttered the cry he lifted wings and tail together, and let them fall
slowly back to their natural position. It was the queerest bird
performance I ever saw.

During all this excitement there sounded from a little distance a low
single "coo," which, I suppose, was the voice of his mate. Not wishing
to make a serious disturbance in the family, and seeing that he was not
to be conciliated, I walked slowly on, looking in the nest as I passed.
It contained one egg that looked like a robin's, and beside it a small
bundle of what resembled black flesh stuck full of white pins. This,
then, was the cuckoo baby; surely an odd one!

On the third day after this experience we were fortunate enough again to
find the nest uncovered. A second youngster lay beside the first, and
the two entirely filled the nest. They were perhaps two and a half
inches long, and resembled, as said above, mere lumps of flesh. After
looking at the young family, we seated ourselves a little way off to
wait for some one to come home.

The place the cuckoo had chosen to nest was one of the most attractive
spots on the grounds, an opening in the woods in which, after the loss
of the trees, had grown up a thicket of wild berries. The bushes were
nearly as high as one's head, and so luxuriant that they made an
impenetrable tangle, through which paths were cut in all directions, and
kept open by much work each year.

In the middle of the opening was a clump of larger saplings, around the
foot of two or three very tall old basswood-trees, part of the original
forest. It was the paradise of small fruits. Early in the season
elderberries ripened, and offered food to whoever would come. Before
they were gone the bushes were red with the