The Burgess Bird Book for ChildrenBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
General
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Birds -- Juvenile literature
To have seen him you would have thought that he suspected Peter might do
him some harm. He acted that way. If Peter hadn't known him so well he
might have been offended. But Peter knew that there is no one among his
feathered friends more cautious than Chut-Chut the Chat. He never takes
anything for granted. He appears to be always on the watch for danger,
even to the extent of suspecting his very best friends.
When he had decided in his own mind that there was no danger, Chut-Chut
came out for a little gossip. But like all the rest of the Warblers he
couldn't keep still. Right in the middle of the story of his travels
from far-away Mexico he flew to the top of a little tree, began to sing,
then flew out into the air with his legs dangling and his tail wagging
up and down in the funniest way, and there continued his song as he
slowly dropped down into the thicket again. It was a beautiful song and
Peter hastened to tell him so.
Chut-Chut was pleased. He showed it by giving a little concert all by
himself. It seemed to Peter that he never had heard such a variety of
whistles and calls and songs as came from that yellow throat. When it
was over Chut-Chut abruptly said good-by and disappeared. Peter could
hear his sharp “Chut! Chut!” farther along in the thicket as he hunted
for worms among the bushes.
“I wonder,” said Peter, speaking out loud without thinking, “where he
builds his nest. I wonder if he builds it on the ground, the way Creeper
does.”
“No,” declared Mummer, who all the time had been darting about close at
hand. “He doesn't, but I do. Chut-Chut puts his nest near the ground,
however, usually within two or three feet. He builds it in bushes or
briars. Sometimes if I can find a good tangle of briars I build my nest
in it several feet from the ground, but as a rule I would rather have
it on the ground under a bush or in a clump of weeds. Have you seen my
cousin Sprite the Parula Warbler, yet?”
“Not yet,” said Peter, as he started for home.
CHAPTER XXVI. Peter Gets a Lame Neck.
For several days it seemed to Peter Rabbit that everywhere he went he
found members of the Warbler family. Being anxious to know all of them
he did his best to remember how each one looked, but there were so many
and some of them were dressed so nearly alike that after awhile Peter
became so mixed that he gave it up as a bad job. Then, as suddenly as
they had appeared, the Warblers disappeared. That is to say, most of
them disappeared. You see they had only stopped for a visit, being on
their way farther north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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