Page:Bird-lore Vol 05.djvu/101

 88 Bird - Lore

the nest. hopping from twig to twig among the shrubs, and I spent several anxious days and nights. fearing they would be appropriated by the neigh- bor’s eat. They grew very fast. and by the next day they could hop along the ground in a lively manner. That evening. while we were sitting on the piazza just at dusk, a small gray thing apparently rolled down the walk: upon investigation it proved to be one of those refractory children starting out to explore the world I picked it up and put it to bed in a strawberry basket on some soft grass-clippings. It was very wide awake, and I had to keep my hand over it until darkness and warmth quieted it, and its head went behind its wing. I then tied the basket carefully to the railing near the nest, and at four the next morning the little thing was sitting on the edge of the basket calling for breakfast.

On June 28, the father reappearedi I came upon him suddenly when they were consulting in the bushes. Apparently he had shirked all the hardest work and had come around for the fun. However that may be, the next morning he and Mrs. Indigo coaxed the little ones safely off into the higher trees, and that was the last we saw of them; but a friend living an eighth of a mile away said she had apparently the same family in her trees the next week

\EST AND eons ui- CAreiRi) inngicwuot N, 1., Junc 1;. mm