Dawn is breaking in the forest. A swan, gracefully swimming, flutters her wings, and from them, little swans fall out to stretch and yawn. Water lilies unfold to reveal a frog sleeping in one of them, still snoring. A wise old owl in a tree blinks his eyes as he awakens and sees Peterkin, the youthful faun, looking somewhat dopey as he greets the new day. “I wonder what mischief he will get into today,” says the owl. Overhead in the trees, the mother birds are in their respective nests, preparing for the coming of spring. The mama sparrow, blackbird, canary, parrot- all are busy watching Dr. Stork timing the eggs as the papa birds nervously pace along the limb of a tree. “The eggs will hatch shortly,” says Dr. Stork. Peterkin suddenly gets an idea, and he immediately goes into action. Slyly, he takes the eggs from one nest and puts them into another until each mama bird is sitting on eggs not of her own brood. When they hatch, all is confusion. The canary has parrots; the sparrow, blackbirds; and so on. He denies switching the eggs. The papa and mama birds, all angry and upset, fly away in different directions, leaving their young to shift for themselves. When feeding time comes, it’s Peterkin who has to care for their needs. They all get hungry and begin to shout, “Peterkins, I’m hungry, do something!” But the task is too much for Peterkin, so he puts all of the baby birds back in their right nests. He then calls the papa and mama birds home. In the end, he admits that he did switch the eggs. When they ascertain the reason for all the confusion, they put Peterkin to work washing diapers.
