asily with a little disentangling of the fibres, and another spotted
egg is seen within. A three-storied nest! A nest full of
stories--certainly. I recently read of a specimen containing four
stories, upon the top of which downy pile the little warbler sat like
Patience on a monument, presumably smiling at the discomfiture of the
outwitted cow-bird parasite, who had thus exhausted her powers of
mischief for the season, and doubtless convinced herself of the folly of
"putting all her eggs in one basket."

[Illustration]

When we consider the life of the cow-bird, how suggestive is this
spectacle which we may see every year in September in the chuckling
flocks massing for their migration, occasionally fairly blackening the
trees as with a mildew, each one the visible witness of a double or
quadruple cold-blooded murder, each the grim substitute for a whole
annihilated singing family of song-sparrow, warbler, or thrush! What a
blessing, at least humanly speaking, could the epicurean population _en
route_ in the annual Southern passage of this dark throng only learn
what a surpassing substitute they would prove--on toast--for the
bobolinks which as "reed-birds" are sacrificed by the thousands to the
delectable satisfaction of those "fine-mouthed and daintie wantons who
set such store by their tooth"!

And what the cow-bird is, so is the Continental "cuckoo." Shall we not
discriminate in our employment of the superlative? What of the throstle
and the lark? Shall we still sing--all together:

"O cuckoo! I hear thee and rejoice!
Thrice welcome darling of the spring."

_DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS_

[Illustration]

How little do we appreciate our opportunities for natural observation!
Even under the most apparently discouraging and commonplace environment,
what a neglected harvest! A back-yard city grass-plot, forsooth, what an
invitation! Yet there is one interrogation to which the local naturalist
is continually called to respond. If perchance he dwells in Connecticut,
how repeatedly is he asked, "Don't you find your particular locality in
Connecticut a specially rich field for natural observation?" The
botanist of New Jersey or the ornithologist of Esopus-on-Hudson is
expected to give an affirmative reply to similar questions concerning
his chosen hunting-grounds, if, indeed, he does not avail himself of
that happy aphorism with which Gilbert White was wont to instruct his
questioners concerning the natural-history