“A pair?” queried Nat.  “They aren’t the same color—­one has yellow spots where the other is red.”

“I guess the one with the brown and yellow feathers must be the female,” said Rap; “you know the Doctor told us, way back, that when the male bird wore very bright feathers, the female was oftenest plain, so that House People and cannibal birds shouldn’t see her so easily when she sat on the nest.”

“You are right, my boy,” said the Doctor, who always let the children answer each other’s questions, if they could.  “Madam Redstart, you see, wears an olive-brown cloak trimmed with yellow, and even her boys wear clothes like their mother’s for a couple of seasons; for Heart of Nature does not allow them to come out in their red and black uniforms until they are three years old, and know the ways of the world.”

“Learning to name birds is harder than I thought it would be,” said Nat.  “Some wear different feathers in spring and fall, a lot more pairs are different to begin with, and the young ones are mixed up at first.  It’s worse than arithmetic”—­and poor Nat looked quite discouraged.

“You certainly have to remember the laws of Birdland, as well as their exceptions,” answered the Doctor; “but when you have once recognized and named a bird you will carry its picture always in your mind, for the Redstarts that you will see when you are very old men and women, will be like the one that is dancing along the walk now.”

“Why do they call this Warbler a ’Redstart’?” asked Dodo.

“Because it has a lot of red on it, and it’s always starting up in a hurry,” ventured Rap.

“That is not the real reason,” said the Doctor.  “The name comes from a German word that means ‘red tail,’ and rightly belongs to a bird of Europe that is never found in this country.  Our bird has some red on the tail, but I really think that Rap’s answer is the better one.”

The American Redstart

Length about five and a half inches.

Upper parts shining black, marked on the wings and tail with rich salmon-red.

Under parts shining black on the neck and breast, bright salmon-red on the sides, and pinkish-white on the belly.

In the female all the parts which are black in her mate are light greenish-gray, and she is clear yellow where he is red.

A useful Summer Citizen of eastern North America, from Kansas to Labrador.  Winters in the tropics.

A Ground Gleaner, Tree Trapper, and Sky Sweeper.

CHAPTER XIII

AROUND THE OLD BARN

This day the bird lovers from Orchard Farm were having a picnic in the hickory and oak woods back of the fields.  It was a charming place for such a day’s outing, for on the edge of the woods stood an old two-storied hay barn, which was empty in early June and a capital place in which to play “I spy” and “feet above water.”  On the other side of the wood was an old swampy meadow full of saplings and tangled bushes, such as birds love for nesting places.