In the Wake of the Brown Thrasher 



is at once suggestive of the jolly, round 

 cheeks of a Brownie. 



His body is so abbreviated and his 

 pinions are so long that when cleaving 

 the air (and no bird under heaven delights 

 more to do this nor has a merrier, livelier 

 time at it than he), this rollicking little 

 fellow of Hghtning speed looks not unlike 

 a large wishbone on the wing. 



And who has not watched with fascinated 

 interest his bewildering capers in the sky? 

 Twittering incessantly as he goes, he seems 

 the very abandon of free and joyous motion 

 — never tiring, nor relaxing for rest, but 

 apparently bent each new moment on some 

 bolder and more startling tangent than any 

 undertaken before. 



He even does all his eating on the wing, 

 so that his gyrations are not entirely for 

 pure sport after all; and — what is really 

 remarkable — he actually snaps off while 

 in flight the small, dead twigs of trees 

 which he uses in the construction of his 

 nest. This, in turn, is most strangely 

 made and quite as unique as the bird 



[63] 



