10 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. 



heads ! If you could have witnessed all their 

 doings and listened to all their sayings, you 

 might have spun a story about them more 

 charming than a fairy tale. 



But I must hurry along, or there will not 

 be time to tell you about a pair of bobolinks 

 which I watched for a long while. At first 

 they were perched on the willows on the 

 brook's bank. As I approached, they flew out 

 aod hovered over my head, calling in alarm 

 that I should not go too near theii* nest. Do 

 my young readers know the bobolink ? He 

 is that bird which lives in clover fields and 

 meadows during the summer, and which wears 

 a handsome suit of black, white, and yellowish. 

 The white extends down his back, and the 

 yellowish stains the back of his neck. He 

 sings a sweet, prolonged strain while circling 

 in the air. His mate is quite diifereiit in color, 

 being clad in modest brown. 



When alarmed, the male bird cried " Chack ! 

 chack ! " in tones almost as harsh as those of the 

 blackbird. Strangely enough, his brown little 

 wife uttered a call in a much hio^her and mel- 

 lower tone, wdiich told that she was very un- 

 easy about something. In spite of Mr. Bobo- 

 link's anxiety, he could not help darting out 

 into the air every now and then and bursting 



