swketlandJ A REMARKABLE OBSERVATION 103 



noticed a sweet warbling, as if several birds were having 

 a concert. It sounded familiar, but I thought nothing of it 

 until there sounded, sweet, clear and true above the warbling, 

 two short notes, sung first on one tone, then in a moment re- 

 peated on a higher tone, then on a still lower, then on the first 

 tone. It was like an orchestra as you have heard one instrument 

 break away from the others and arrest your attention in a 

 burst of sweet music for which the other instruments are mak- 

 ing a beautiful accompaniment. No well trained orchestra 

 could have played in more perfect time nor have blended its 

 instruments in sweeter harmony than did these strange musi- 

 cians of the air. I wish I were musical enough to be able to 

 represent on the staff the short, flute-like notes and to show the 

 tones in which they were sung, but I couldn't do it if I tried. 



Sister and I both went out to see what strange birds 

 these were, for though the warbling had sounded familiar, the 

 rest was not and so I thought they must be some new birds. 

 Finally we espied them in the top of a tall oak. They were too 

 high for us to see what they were, but we could now see the 

 strangest part. The birds were dancing! It was none of your 

 modern ragtime dances with their hurrying, awkward move- 

 ments, but a figure executed with as much stateliness and grace 

 as our great grandmothers ever put into the Virginia reel. Dur- 

 ing the warbling the birds sat on their perches bowing and sing- 

 ing; but the short quick notes were the signals for the figures, 

 and some or all of the birds would hop on their branches, bow- 

 ing deeply and flirting their tails. Sometimes the birds hopped 

 together, sometimes one after another, sometimes one, some- 

 times all, but however they did it they kept the most perfect 

 rhythm, never making a movement but it seemed a part of the 

 music. For about five minutes we watched them so fascinated 

 that we almost held our breath, then suddenlv they rose on 

 their wings and flew away over our heads. We craned our 

 necks to see what they were; but we didn't need to see, for as 

 they flew overhead they one and all called out with voices in 

 startling contrast to the sweet tones of a moment before, 

 "Jay! jay! jay!" 



Sister and I looked at each other in astonishment. Such 

 music from bluejays and not more than five of them at that! 

 T have often heard bluejays give the warbling sound and sup- 

 posed that to be their song, though as I heard it that morning 

 I couldn't place it. In a tree less than two rods from the oak 



