LESSON 22 PECK

PECK

Ⅰ

mag-pie feath-ers searched

par-ents knocked hun-dreds

bun-dle hatched be-came

1. Peck was a magpie. His parents built a nest in the fork of a gum-tree near a house. It was not a very tidy nest, but looked like a bundle of sticks.

2. The nest was lined with hay and feathers, and in it the mother magpie laid four pale-green eggs, spotted with brown.

3. After the nest was built, the magpies seemed to think that they owned the garden and the fields around it.

4. If one of the fowls strayed from the yard and went near the tree, a magpie would chase it home again.

5. One day, indeed, a man on horseback rode under the tree, and one of the birds flew down and knocked his hat from his head.

6. When the eggs were hatched, the magpies were very busy. They searched through the garden and fields, and found hundreds of insects and grubs with which to feed their babies.

7. Just before the young ones were able to fly, a great storm of wind blew one of them out of the nest.

8. A boy found the poor little bird and took it home. He fed it with bits of meat, and it soon became quite tame.

9. When it was fully grown, its wing feathers were cut, and it was given to a boy in town, who named it Peck.