WHAT JOSIE FOUND IN THE WOODS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1726, 29 March 1905, Page 13

WHAT JOSIE FOUND IN THE WOODS

Josie and his mamma were visiting Aunt Martha, who lived on a farm. The little boy did not often get to the country', and he was much pleased with everything he saw. The chickens and little ducks, the calves and the horses, and oven the pigs, were interesting to him. There were no children at Aunt Martha’s for him to play with, but lie soon learned to amuse himself. He loved to go to the quiet cool woods, with Bonnie racing ahead. Now and then doggie would look back and give a little friendly bark, as if to say: “Come along, Josie!” Josie found curious lichens clinging to old stumps in the woods, and sometimes he gathered these for mamma. One day, when ho was climbing a tree, he found a bird’s nest snugly set inside three forking branches. There was no bird in the nest. The eggs had been hatched, and the little birds bad flown away weeks ago.

“I guess Mrs Birdie won't want the old nest again," thought Josie. “I should like to give it to teacher when I go back to school." The nest was built of little twigs and dry grass, with a mixture of dry mud on the outside. It was shaped like a little shallow bowl, but it had a very thick bottom or base. Josie took pains to remove the nest without breaking it. He tied it in liis handkerchief, and slid down the tree carefully. Of course if he had found eggs or little birds in the nest lie would not have touched it for the world. He knew how mother birds love their eggs and their little baby birds. Josie ran home with his treasure, and showed it to Aunt Martha and mamma. ‘‘The nest must have a hollow in the bottom of it," he said. “Something rattles inside. I didn’t know that birds built cellers to their nests." Aunt Martna knew sometning about birds and their habits. “It is the nest of a yellow warbler," she said. Very carefully she lifted a mat of grajss and dried mud in the bottom of the nest, and what do you suppose she found in the little enclosure that Josie called the “cellar" ? Two small eggs and one large egg of a different colour. “O auntie 1 . How did the eggs get there?" asked Josie, who was very much surprised. “Why, it’s really two nests, one built on top of the other!" “Yes, it is two nests, one built on the top of the other," said Aunt Martha. “Let me tell you how the top nest came to be built. At first, early in the season, Mrs Yellow Warbler built the under nest. After she had laid her second egg she found one day this big egg, which she knew was not her own. There are lazy birds which lay their eggs in the nests of other birds to save themselves the trouble of making nests and of batching. ‘‘Now, Mrs Yellow Warbler does not like to be imposed ttpon in this way. She did not want to hatoh out a big bird that might crowd her own little birdies out of the nest and eat up all the food. I daresay she fluttered about and scolded when she found the strange egg in her nest. Then perhaps she said to herself, ‘Scolding does ao good, and I can’t lift the big egg out of the nest, so I'll just build another nest on top and lay some more eggs for myself.' And that i® what she did/' “So the egg of the lazy bird who tried to take advantage didn't get hatched out

at all,” said Josie. “I think it served her right.”