Evening star., 1937-07-15

Old Mother Nature.
CALLY SLY the Cowbird was out
Of luck. Yes. sir, she was out Of
luck, At least she considered herself
out of luck. although her feelings were
not shared by her feathered neigh
bors. She had come back from the
Sunny South earlier than usual and
had decided to do her egg laying
earlier so as to have longer Summer
free from duties Of any kind. She
had no intention whatever Of caring
for those eggs herself. She thought
herself clever enough to make her
neighbors do this for her. But, it
being so early in the season. there
were few nests as yet, and these few
were not Of those she ordinarily would
choose to be foster parents to her
children.
Then Sally made a mistake, to
begin with. Her first egg was laid
in an old nest. In her hurry she had
mistaken 1t for new nest of Mr..
and Mrs. Phoebe. Her second egg
she laid In the nest Of Welcome and
Mrs. Robin. Promptly it was thrown
out on the ground and broken To
say the least, this was discouraging.
A third egg Jared no better.
I'll wait" decided Sally Sly. I'll
wait until more Of the folks from
the Sunny South arrive. Anyway. I
would rather leave by babies to the
care Of some OF those not yet here
than to any who are here now"
So Sally Sly spent her time wan
dering about with lot Of equally
carefree companions having good
time. Every day there were new arriv-
ais from the Sunny South. Most Of
them remained for a few days only
and moved on farther North But
some remained, and almost at once
these began to look for places to build
nests. Sally Sly was not in the least
interested in those who would not stay,
nor In any of the larger birds who
would stay. But the smaller folk
those smaller than herself, she spied
upon constantly. She was very clever
about it. She kept herself pretty we'll
out of sight. She sneaked about
under cover of the Shrubbery and
watched her neighbors. When she
would discover one carrying building
material she would watch and follow
that one until she found where that
material was being taken. In this
manner she found every nest that
was being built or had been built In
or around the Old Orchard. Some
nests were in trees. Some were in
bushes. One or two nests were on
the ground. Sally knew them all,
who built them and all about them.
1t is doubtful if any one else in or
around the Old Orchard knew as
much about the featherd folk living
there as did Sally Sly.
: Not only did she know where all
the nests were, which was the softest
which was the deepest. which was
the best hidden, which was most
securely built, but she knew also
which Of the various couples who had
built them could most easily be i'm
posed upon and would be most likely
to be the best foster parents.
She left one egg in the nest Of
Little Friend the Song Sparrow,
hoping that 1t was not so unlike the
three ggs in the nest that it would
be noticed. When she went around
the next day to see If it was still
there and found that it was she was
satisfied. Mrs. Sparrow Is q good
mother, so there is nothing to worry
about there" thought she.
She left an egg in the nest, the
beautiful deep, soft nest, of Sunshine
the Yellow Warbler. OF all the nests
she had found she liked this one best
1t would be wonderful home for
baby Cowbird. There were two eggs
in the nest when she left one of hers
there. She wished it was not so
much bigger than the others. It
would be likely to draw unpleasant
attention from the owners of the nest
But even II 1t did, she was sure that
they couldn't throw or kick it out of
the nest.
Three days later she returned to
SSS ~ olA WdO ~CA Will Cllc ckk. Ole
was checking up. As she approached
there seemed to be something odd
about that nest. When she was near
enough to look into it she couldn't
look into it. She couldn't see her own
egg or any other eggs. That nest had
been rooted over. and that roof was
the bottom Of another nest. Those
warblers were building new nest right
on the other. They had no inten-
ton Of Matching out that egg of Sally
Sly's.
But this was Sally's last failure.
She left an egg in the nest Of Chippy
the Chipping Sparrow, one in the nest
Of Redeye the Vireo, and one in the
nest Of Zee Zee the Redstart. All of
these were accepted, unwillingly it is
true, but accepted Just the same. So
persistence won.
(Copyright, lp37J
Twizz1ar Ansuar