d now and he can
find you some empty nests, if you go with him, so you can see how they
are made; he will show you the Redwings' nests, too. You boys may take
off your shoes and stockings; and Miss Dodo, being a girl, shall ride on
Olaf's shoulder." "Please, can't I have my shoes off too?" begged Dodo.
"I love to wade like the boys!"

"By and by, on the beach; but what if a frog or an eel should touch your
foot, or a sharp straw stick in it--are you enough of a boy not to
scream?"

Dodo was not sure, and thought she would begin by riding.

The Meadowlark

Length ten to eleven inches.

Upper parts marked with brown, bay, gray, and black; head striped, with
a yellow spot in front of the eye; wing-feathers nearest the body, and
most of the tail-feathers, scalloped with black and gray, but the
outside tail-feathers white.

Under parts nearly all yellow, with a black crescent on the breast, but
further back flaxen-brown, with dark stripes.

Bill stout where it runs up on the forehead, but tapering to the point.

A Citizen of the United States and Canada.

A good and useful neighbor. A famous member of the guild of Ground
Gleaners, its chief work being to kill bad insects which eat the
grass-roots in pastures and hay-fields.

A beautiful bird and charming songster.

CHAPTER XVIII

CROWS AND THEIR COUSINS

In half an hour the children were back again, all talking eagerly
together.

"The Redwings scolded us like everything!" said Dodo, "and Rap stepped
right into an empty Meadow-lark's nest, without seeing it. A little way
back there are lots of Bobolinks, too, singing and singing, but we
couldn't find a single nest."

"It was pretty warm out there," said Nat, fanning himself with a wide
haymaker's hat, such as both he and Dodo had worn since they came to the
Farm.

"Come under the shelter and rest until Olaf has dinner ready. Where is
Olive?"

"She is down by the water looking for seaweeds, for her album."

"Have we used up all the Blackbird family?" asked Dodo, as they sat on
the sand and began to dig holes with their hands.

"Oh, no; there is the biggest of all--the Crow," said Nat.

"Strange as it is," replied the Doctor, "though the Crow is the blackest
of all our birds he does not belong to the Blackbird family, but to a
separate one of his own--the family of Crows, Jays, and Magpies."

"How is that, Uncle Roy? You said that beautiful blue and gray bird we
saw in the woods was a Jay,