August 



culiar acrobatic vocalization. This is the most 

 beautiful creature in black and white to be 

 found among our song-birds, and as far as I 

 could observe, happily unconscious of his fine 

 looks. As one compares the male, attired in 

 glossy black, and so curiously but elegantly 

 decorated in buff and white, with the dingy, 

 lustreless, ginghamed female, it looks like fresh 

 evidence that the ways of Providence are un- 

 equal. It being my misfortune that the bobo- 

 link's ways and mine have converged so little 

 in the past, I shall sedulously seek him out, 

 trusting he will not be averse to receiving me 

 among his numerous list of friends and admir- 

 ers. 



In the same field where I found the bobo- 

 links it was haying-time; and as I roamed 

 about (in criminal idleness, from an agricultu- 

 ral point of view), I overheard one farmer call 

 out to another, ''What is that fellow looking 

 at, over there?" " O, the birds! " was the 

 reply. " That is another of those fellov^s from 

 the city ! " I was in doubt, from the tone in 

 which this was said, which of the three he held 

 in greatest contempt — the birds, the city, or 



237 



