A TIRED IRAVELLER loi 



There I left him, pfoinp: .iw.iy along the shore, but an 

 ht)ur or two later I returned to the same spc^, cominj^ 

 over the wide sands, and lo ! where I had left one red- 

 wing there were now two. One ilew wildly away at 

 my approach to a distance of eighty or a hundred yards 

 before alighting again ; the other remained, and when 

 I drew near it again moved on its perch, a little alarmed 

 as at first, flirting its wings and tail and once uttering 

 its call note ; and tlien, recovering from its fear, it 

 began uttering little chirps as before. Those tender little 

 musical sounds, reminiscent of vanished days in distant 

 lands, were somewhat sad, as if the bird complained 

 at being left alone. But his mate had not forsaken him 

 after all, or perhaps she had gone on with the others 

 and then returned to look for him at the last roosting- 

 place. 



Having found my bird, I determined to make the 

 most of our second meeting. I had never had an op- 

 portunity of looking at a redwing so closely before in 

 such a favourable light, and, seeing it in that way, I 

 found it a more beautiful bird than I had thought it. 

 Perched at a height of above five feet, it was seen against 

 the pale sky in that soft sunlight, pale ])ut crystal clear, 

 and its eyes and every delicate shade in its colouring 

 were distinctly visible. The upper parts were olive- 

 brown, as in the throstle, but the cream-coloured band 

 over the large dark eye made it very unlike that bird ; 

 the dark spotted under-parts were cream-white, tinged 

 with bufif, the flanks bright chestnut-red. I could not 

 have seen it better, nor so well, if I had held it dead 



