THE FLYING CLOWN 



that they would do uncommon things. And as for their 

 more distant relatives, the Hummingbirds and Chimney 

 Swifts, it would take a story apiece as long as this to 

 begin to tell of their strange doings. But it is a nice, 

 likable sort of queerness they all have ; so very interest- 

 ing, too, that we enjoy them the better for it. 



There is one more wonderful thing yet that Mis and 

 his mate did — and their twins with them; for before 

 this happened, the children had grown to be as big as 

 their parents, and a bit plumper, perhaps, though not 

 enough to be noticed under their feathers. Toward the 

 end of a pleasant summer, they joined a company of 

 their kind, a sort of traveling circus, and went south for 

 the winter. Just what performances they gave along the 

 way, I did not hear; but with a whole flock of flying 

 clowns on the wing, it seems likely that they had a gay 

 time of it altogether ! 



