oth he and Jenny are
when the sixteen young ones come out of their shells--little helpless
gaping things wanting feeding in their turns the livelong summer day!
What hundreds and thousands of small insects they devour! they catch
flies with good-sized wings. I have seen a parent wren with its beak
so full that the wings stood out at each side like the whiskers of a
cat.

Once in America in the month of June, a mower hung up his coat under a
shed near a barn: two or three days passed before he had occasion to
put it on again. Thrusting his arm up the sleeve he found it
completely filled with something, and on pulling out the mass he found
it to be the nest of a wren completely finished and lined with
feathers. What a pity that all the labor of the little pair had been
in vain!

Great was the distress of the birds, who vehemently and angrily
scolded him for destroying their house; happily it was an empty one,
without either eggs or young birds.

* * * * *

HISTORY OF A BLACKBIRD.

We had had one of those summer storms which so injure the beautiful
flowers and the young leaves of the trees. A blackbird's nest with
young ones in it was blown out of the ivy on the wall, and the little
ones with the exception of one, were killed! The poor little bird did
not escape without a wound upon his head, and when he was brought to
me it did not seem very likely that I should ever be able to rear him;
but I could not refuse to take in the little helpless stranger, so I
put him into a covered basket for a while.

I soon found that I had undertaken what was no easy task, for he
required feeding so early in a morning that I was obliged to take him
and his bread crumbs into my bedroom, and jump up to feed him as soon
as he began to chirp, which he did in very good time.

Then in the daytime I did not dare to have him in the sitting-room
with me, because my sleek favorites, the cats, would soon have
devoured him, so I carried him up into an attic, and as he required
feeding very often in the day, you may imagine that I had quite enough
of exercise in running up and down stairs.

But I was not going to neglect the helpless thing after once
undertaking to nurse him, and I had the pleasure of seeing him thrive
well upon his diet of dry-bread crumbs and a little scrap of raw meat
occasionally; this last delicacy, you know, was a sort of imitation of
worms!

Very soon my birdie knew my step, and t