170 DOWN THE MEADOW. 



their conduct seemed unnatural, and a doubt 

 stole over me whether this bird — this individ- 

 ual, I mean — could be a domestic tyrant. I 

 knew from previous studies that the love-making- 

 manners of the redwing are a little on the 

 " knock-down-and-drag-out " order of some sav- 

 age tribes of our own species. To chase the 

 belov(Kl until she drops with fatigue seems to be 

 the blackbird idea of a tender attention, and pos- 

 sibly the pursuit of his spouse already spoken of 

 may have been of this sort, merely a loverly dem- 

 onstration. But with the babies it was a dif- 

 ferent thing. Heretofore I had seen blackbird 

 fathers devoted attendants on their young, work- 

 ing as hard as the mothers in seeking supplies, 

 and following up the wandering brood to ad- 

 minister them. But this bird, I observed, was 

 avoided by the little folk. When he showed 

 inclination to join the family party on one of 

 its excursions, they shied away from him, and if 

 he came too near they uttered a sort of husky 

 " huff," like tlie familiar protest of a cat. With 

 the same sound they greeted him and moved 

 away when he approached a bush where they 

 sat. Perhaps this crustiness of demeanor was 

 the natural result of his long weeks of anxiety 

 and trouble as protector during their helpless 

 infancy ; perhaps he was tired out and exhausted, 

 and it was not irritability, but nervous prostra- 



