"In gratitude for what we owe him for his music and his work in the guilds, we must be patient with him when he secures the first ripe cherries from the top of the tree, before we House People know that they are even red. For every cherry and strawberry he bites, he pays ten times over by swallowing a hundred wicked hungry worms and bugs that eat everything and do no work in return. But House People are very blind about some things, and often act as if they had only one eye apiece, like the Cyclopes. We see one of these darling birds take a little fruit; we see more fruit with holes in it, and think that birds have done the damage, though a wasp or hornet may be the guilty party; and then we often say, 'What a nuisance those birds are!' "But all the rest of the growing year, when these same birds toil from sunrise until sunset, to clear away insect pests and give us a better crop of fruit next year, we do not notice it. You children, however, will have no such excuse for keeping one eye shut when you know Citizen Bird as he really is." "How late at night does the Wood Thrush sing?" asked Nat. "Does he never sleep?" "Oh, yes, he goes to sleep when it is really dark, but at this nesting season the night in Birdland is very short; some of the feathered people are stirring at three o'clock, and by four all thrifty birds have dressed themselves to go out marketing for breakfast." "The Veeries are singing down by the river," said Olive to her father; "perhaps we had better go there before it grows dark." "Veeries? Is that what you call those birds?" asked Rap. "I never knew their name, so I called them 'sunset birds,' to myself." "Veeries, yes, but called Wilson's Thrush, too," said the Doctor; "because this kind of Thrush was named after Alexander Wilson, who wrote a description of it, and published a colored plate of it, seventy-five years ago. But your name of 'sunset bird' is very good, my lad, for they sing best about twilight. We will go down to the river path and hear them, though you cannot see them very clearly now." The Wood Thrush The largest of our Thrushes except the Robin--length about eight inches. Upper parts warm brown, like ground cinnamon; brightest on the head, but a little greenish on the tail. Under parts plain white in the middle, but boldly spotted with black all over the breast and along the sides. Eye-ring whitish. A Summer Citizen of the eastern United States, and a Ground Gleaner, Tree Trapper, and Seed Sower. WILSON'S THRUSH Commonly called VEERY from the sound of one of its notes "How still it is here!" said Dodo, as they walked along the footpath that wound in and out among the trees toward the edge of the river. Swallows were skimming close to the water, which sang a little song to itself as it ran along. "What do you think those birds are doing, Rap," said Nat; "looking at themselves in the water or playing tag?" [Illustration: Veery.]