“I wonder if you fed them with cod-liver oil and licorice lozenges if their voices would be better?” asked Dodo, who had suffered from a hoarse cold the winter before.

“I don’t know what that treatment might do for them,” laughed the Doctor; “but if you will agree to feed them I will give you the oil and licorice!” And then Dodo laughed at herself.

The Purple Grackle

Length twelve to thirteen and a half inches.

Male:  glossy black, with soap-bubble tints on the head, back, tail, and wings, and yellow iris.  A long tail that does not lie flat and smooth like that of most birds.

Female:  dull blackish and smaller—­not over twelve inches.

A Citizen of the Atlantic States from Florida to Massachusetts.

A good Citizen, if there are not too many in one place to eat too much grain.

A Ground Gleaner and Tree Trapper, clearing grubs and beetles from ploughed land.

THE MEADOWLARK

[Illustration:  Meadowlark.]

“In early March the Meadowlark comes to the places that he was obliged to leave in the winter, and cries, ‘Spring o’ the year!  Spring o’ the y-e-a-r!’ to the brown fields and icy brooks.  They hear the call and immediately begin to stir themselves.

“Then the Meadowlark begins to earn his living, and pay his taxes at the same time, by searching the fields and pastures first for weed seeds and then, as the ground softens, for the various grubs and beetles that meant to do mischief as soon as they could get a chance.  By the middle of May, when the grass has grown high enough to protect him, this gentle bird thinks he has earned a right to a home in one of the meadows he has freed from their insect enemies, and sets about to make it.  A little colony may settle in this same field, or a single pair have a corner all to themselves.

“A loose grass nest is arranged in a suitable spot, usually where the grass is long enough to be drawn together over the nest like a sort of tent.  Here the mother tends the eggs and nestlings, the father always keeping near to help her, and continually singing at his daily toil of providing for his family as charmingly as if he were still a gay bachelor; for Meadowlarks are very affectionate both toward each other and their young.  It is really distressing to hear the sadness of the song of one who has lost his mate.  He seems to be crying, ’Where are you, dear?’ and beseeching her to come.

“Though we frequently hear their song in the marsh meadows in autumn, they are shyer then, and keep in flocks.  At that season they grow fat, and gunners continually worry them; but I do not think that sportsmen often shoot these song birds.  They are chiefly the victims of thoughtless boys or greedy pot-hunters.  The true sportsman is one of the first to preserve all song birds, and give even game birds a fair chance for life; he is thus very different from the cruel man who, simply because he owns a gun, shoots everything, from a Robin to a Quail, and even in the nesting season.”