Nevertheless, the fight and wound had one good result for me; my
brother had all at once become less masterful, or tyrannical, towards
me, and even began to show some interest in my solitary disposition
and tastes. A little bird incident brought out this feeling in a way
that was very agreeable to me. One evening I told him and our eldest
brother that I had seen a strange thing in a bird which had led me to
find out something new. Our commonest species was the parasitic
cowbird, which laid its eggs anywhere in the nests of all the other
small birds. Its colour was a deep glossy purple, almost black; and
seeing two of these birds flying over my head, I noticed that they had
a small chestnut-coloured spot beneath the wing, which showed that
they were not the common species. It had then occurred to me that I
had heard a peculiar note or cry uttered by what I took to be the
cowbird, which was unlike any note of that bird; and following this
clue, I had discovered that we had a bird in our plantation which was
like the cowbird in size, colour, and general appearance, but was a
different species. They appeared amused by my story, and a few days
later they closely interrogated me on three consecutive evenings as to
what I had seen that was remarkable that day, in birds especially, and
were disappointed because I had nothing interesting to tell them.
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