"Oh, very!" Mr. Red-winged Blackbird answered for his friend.
Mr. Crow turned a snapping eye on him, and croaked:
"There's at least one name you left out among the lot you mentioned to me. You said he was known as the Reed Bird, the Rice Bird, and the Butter Bird. But there's one more bird still to be added to the list."
"Is there?"
"Yes!" Mr. Crow replied. "Maybe I know more about your chum than you do. Perhaps you weren't aware that in spite of all the elegant names you've spoken of, he's nothing but a Skunk Blackbird after all!" And with a loud haw-haw Mr. Crow[p. 57] rose upon the breeze and flapped into the woods. That was a favorite trick of his. After making some specially rude remark he would hurry away before anybody had time to think of a retort.
"The idea!" Mr. Red-winged Blackbird exclaimed to Bobby Bobolink, gazing after Mr. Crow with an injured air. "He insulted you!"
To his great surprise Bobby laughed heartily.
"Mr. Crow is a wise old bird," he said, "He generally knows what he's talking about."
"You don't mean to say that he was telling the truth, do you?" Mr. Red-winged Blackbird demanded.
"I do!" Bobby Bobolink admitted.