There they lay their eggs, and hatch them, and raise their children, and teach them how to fly, and to get their living. Hundreds of families live thus peaceably together, and have a good time helping and visiting each other. Policemen do not seem to be necessary in these cities, where each bird behaves just as well as he knows how. [Illustration: NESTS OF SOCIAL GROSSBEAKS.] No doubt, after their hard work is done, they have fine fun at their parties, and merry-makings. Whether they have “town meetings,” and public lectures, and parades, I know not. Private lectures, and concerts, I am sure they must have! And the liveliest jigs and waltzes among the branches of the trees! A traveler in Africa once brought one of these nests away with him. It contained 340 little nests. So it had been inhabited by 340 pairs of birds, and their families. It was so heavy that several men were necessary to remove it from the tree; and it was taken away in a wagon. THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF GUTEFUNDUS. Once upon a time—it was four hundred years ago—the great Gutefundus, of blessed memory, made up his mind that he would go all over the world, and do good to everybody. A great part of the world as we know it, had not then been discovered, and there were not so many people in those times as there are now. But still it was something of an undertaking to go all over the world, and do good to everybody. Nevertheless, Gutefundus resolved to do it. He decided, in the first place, that he would kill the great Sea Serpent. This was a snake three or four miles long, which amused itself by winding its coils around ships, thus crunching them up, after which it would eat the crews at its leisure. If it were not very hungry it would follow a ship a long time, rising out of the water occasionally, and picking off a man or two at a time, until it had made an end of the whole ship’s company. Nobody ever knew where to find this snake, for it traveled all over the ocean with incredible swiftness; and, it had such an extremely hard and horny skin, that no dart or knife could pierce it. It was therefore not an easy thing either to find the Sea Serpent, or to kill it. Nevertheless Gutefundus determined to find it and kill it. He embarked on this expedition in mid-summer, in the very best vessel that could be made in those days, and with a crew of picked men. Fortune favored him, and in the second month of the cruise, the great Sea Serpent was after the ship of Gutefundus, little dreaming that that very ship was after him.