nk Cousin Robin is the sweetest singer of our family, but
a great many like my song just as well.

Early in the morning I sing among the bushes, but later in the day you
will always find me in the very top of a tree and it is then I sing my
best.

Do you know what I say in my song? Well, if I am near a farmer while he
is planting, I say: "Drop it, drop it--cover it up, cover it up--pull it
up, pull it up, pull it up."

One thing I very seldom do and that is, sing when near my nest. Maybe
you can tell why. I'm not very far from my nest now. I just came down to
the stream to get a drink and am watching that boy on the other side of
the stream. Do you see him?

One dear lady who loves birds has said some very nice things about me in
a book called "Bird Ways." Another lady has written a beautiful poem
about my singing. Ask your mamma or teacher the names of these ladies.
Here is the poem:

There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree.
He is singing to me! He is singing to me!
And what does he say--little girl, little boy?
"Oh, the world's running over with joy!
Hush! Look! In my tree,
I am as happy as happy can be."

And the brown thrush keeps singing, "A nest, do you see,
And five eggs, hid by me in the big cherry tree?
Don't meddle, don't touch--little girl, little boy--
Or the world will lose some of its joy!
Now I am glad! now I am free!
And I always shall be,
If you never bring sorrow to me."

So the merry brown thrush sings away in the tree
To you and to me--to you and to me;
And he sings all the day--little girl, little boy--
"Oh, the world's running over with joy!
But long it won't be,
Don't you know? don't you see?
Unless we're good as good can be."

[Illustration: BROWN THRASHER.]

[Illustration: JAPAN PHEASANT.]

THE JAPAN PHEASANT.

Originally the Pheasant was an inhabitant of Asia Minor but has been
by degrees introduced into many countries, where its beauty of form,
plumage, and the delicacy of its flesh made it a welcome visitor. The
Japan Pheasant is a very beautiful species, about which little is known
in its wild state, but in captivity it is pugnacious. It requires much
shelter and plenty of food, and the breed is to some degree artificially
kept up by the hatching of eggs under domestic hens and feeding them in
the coop like ordinary chickens, until they are old