A BLACK-SATIN MOUTH. 193 



mained perfectly silent and motionless tliere 

 for forty -five minutes. Then I caught sight of 

 Madam returning. She came in from the woods, 

 behind and at the level of the nest; there was a 

 moment's flutter of wings, and I saw that her 

 mate was gone, and she in her usual place. 



The next day there was a change in the pro- 

 gramme. It happened that I arrived when the 

 mother was away, and the head of the household 

 in charge. No sooner did I appear on the path 

 than he flew off the nest with great bustle, thus 

 betraying himself at once ; but he did not desert 

 his post of protector. He perched on a branch 

 somewhat higher than my head, and five or six 

 feet away, and began calling, a low "coo-oo." 

 With every cry he opened his mouth very wide, 

 as though to shriek at the top of his voice, and 

 the low cry that came out was so ludicrously in- 

 adequate to his apparent effort that it was very 

 droll. In this performance he made fine display 

 of the inside of his mouth and throat, which 

 looked, from where I stood, like black satin. 



The calls he made while I watched him 

 sounded so far off that if I had not been within 

 six feet of him, and seen him make them, I 

 should never have suspected him : — 



" A cry 

 Which made me look a thousand ways, 

 In bush and tree and sky " 



