90 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



ley as -the ' love- vine' (dodder). The whole pocket 

 was composed of it, making a very gaudy nest. 



Linnets nested in the same old tree. Indeed, 

 it is hard to say where these pretty rosy house 

 finches, cousins of our purple finches, would not 

 take it into their heads to build. They nested 

 over the front door, in the vines over the windows, 

 in the oaks and about the outbuildings, and their 

 happy musical songs rang around the ranch-house 

 from morning till night. As I listened to their 

 merry roundelay day after day* during that beau- 

 tiful California spring, it sounded to me as though 

 they said, " Hoiv-pretty -it-is* -out, hoio-jyretty-it-is' '- 

 out, how-pretty -it-is' ! " The linnets are ardent 

 little wooers, singing and dancing before the in- 

 different birds they would win for their mates. 

 I once saw a rosy lover throw back his pretty 

 head and hop about before his brown lady till 

 she was out of patience and turned her back on 

 him. When that had no effect, she opened her 

 bill, spread her wings, and leaned toward him as 

 if saying, " If you don't stop your nonsense, 

 I '11 — " But the fond linnets' gallantry and ten- 

 derness are not all spent in the wooing. When 

 the mother bird was brooding her nest over our 

 front door, her crimson-throated mate stood on the 

 peak of the ridgepole above and sang blithely to 

 her, turning his head and looking down every 

 little while to make sure that she was listening to 

 his pretty prattle. 



