104 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



absence of fear. The old birds seldom 

 alight, and I have seen one return from 

 a dizz)^ flight and cover her nest with- 

 out even grazing the margin. Some- 

 times the flock would number thirty or 

 forty, and all the summer from dawn 

 until sunset they fed in the garden, 

 uttering harsh little cries, whirling and 

 fighting, and only yielding their haunt 

 to the hawk-moths at dusk. When there 

 came with September some few days of 

 dark, stormy weather, they circled high 

 in excitement, and the next morning, 

 as a flock, they had passed to the 

 south, though a few stragglers remained 

 all through October. 



On the top of the trellis where the 

 humming-birds and butterflies gath- 

 ered, in a blaze of July sunshine, was a 

 young cowbird. It did not perch, it 

 sat, its only comprehension seeming to 

 be the possession of a stomach, and 



