"I watched and after a few minutes first one Robin flew under the shed and then the other, and the next thing one was sitting on the pail-nest as nice as you please!" "Did the birds hatch?" asked Olive, Nat, and Dodo, almost in the same breath. "Yes, they hatched all right; and then I noticed something funny. The backs and breasts of the little birds were almost naked when they were hatched, and their eyes closed tight; but when the feathers came they were spotted on their backs and breasts and not plain like their parents. Do you know," added Rap after a little pause, "that when Bluebirds are little, their backs and breasts are speckled too, though afterward they moult out plain? So there is something alike about Bluebirds and Robins that even a boy can see." "You are quite right," said the Doctor; "the 'something alike, that even a boy can see,' is one of the things that shows these birds to be cousins, as I told you. Every one of the Silver-tongued Family is spotted when it gets its first feathers. It is strange," he added in an undertone, as if talking to himself, "how long it took some of us to find out what any bright boy can see." The American Robin--Remember This Length ten inches. Upper parts slate color with a tinge of brown. Head black on top and sides, with white spots around the eyes. Tail black with white spots on the tips of some feathers. Under parts brick-red, except the black and white streaked throat and under the tail. A Citizen of the United States and Canada. A Ground Gleaner, Tree Trapper, and Seed Sower. THE WOOD THRUSH One pleasant evening after tea, but before sunset, the Doctor sent Nat to ask Rap to come up to the Farm, as they were all going for a walk through the orchard and the river woods. "What birds will you tell us about to-night?" asked Dodo, as they stood in the porch waiting for the boys. "Cousins of the Bluebird--more cousins--but really the heads of the Silver-tongued Family. They wear much plainer clothes than the Bluebirds and Robins, on their olive or russet-brown backs and light-tinted, dark-spotted breasts, but have the most beautiful voices in all Birdland. The names of these wonderful singers, who make a musical quartette, are Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Wilson's Thrush, and Olive-backed Thrush; but you will have to keep both your eyes and ears open to learn to tell them apart and name them rightly." "There has been the beautifullest bird singing in the big elm on the lawn for more than an hour, but I don't know his name and I want to ever so much. Do you think he might be one of these Thrushes? He is singing now, Uncle Roy." And Dodo began tugging at the Doctor's hand, to lead him down the steps. They saw Nat and Rap coming along the road, and the Doctor motioned to them to walk quietly, so that Dodo's bird might continue his song. "What is it? What are you waiting for?" whispered Nat. "A bird? Where?"