"I'll see if I can find it."
Then the cry sounded again, and, in another moment, out of a tree flew a
big bird.
"Oh, maybe that bird stuck his sharp beak in the kittie and made it cry,"
thought Uncle Wiggily. "Bird, did you do that?" he asked, calling to the
bird, who was flying around in the air.
"Did I do what?" asked the bird.
"Did you stick the kittie, and make it cry?"
"Oh, no," answered the bird. "I made that cat-crying noise myself. I am a
cat-bird, you know," and surely enough that bird went "Mew! Mew! Mew!"
three times, just like that, exactly as if a cat had cried under your
window, when you were trying to go to sleep.
"Ha! That is very strange!" exclaimed the rabbit. "So you are a cat-bird."
"Yes, and my little birds are kittie-birds," was the answer. "I'll show
you."
So the bird went "Mew! Mew! Mew!" again, and a lot of the little birds
came flying around and they all went "Mew! Mew!" too, just like kitties.
Oh, I tell you cat-birds are queer things! and how they do love cherries
when they are ripe! Eh?
"That is very good crying, birdies," said Uncle Wiggily, "and I think I'll
give you something to eat, to pay for it." So he took out from his valise
some peanuts, that Percival, the circus dog, had given him, and Uncle
Wiggily fed them to the cat-bird and her kittie-birds.
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