AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE. 



93 



California Chewiuk. 



(One half natural size.) 



to sit down and study him in your own door- 

 yard, or where he is so common as to be an 

 every-day matter. The chippies were always sit- 

 ting around, scratching, or 

 picking up seeds ; or else 

 quarreling among them- 

 selves. Feeling that it was 

 my duty to watch them, I 

 reasoned with myself, but 

 they seemed so mortally 

 dull and uninteresting it 

 was hard work to give up 

 any time to them. When 

 they went to nesting, their wild instincts asserted 

 themselves, and they hid away so closely I was 

 never sure of but one of their nests, and that 

 only by most cautious watch- 

 ing. Then for the first time 

 they became interesting ! To 

 my surprise, one day I heard 

 a brown chippie lift up his 

 voice and sing. It was in a 

 sunny grove of oaks, and 

 though his song was a queer 

 squeaky warble, it had in it a 

 good deal of sweetness and 

 contentment ; for the bird seemed to find life very 

 pleasant. The ranchman's son told me that up 

 in the canyons at dusk he had sometimes heard 

 towhee concerts, the birds answering each other 

 from different parts of the canyon. 



Eastern Chewink. 

 (One half natural size.) 



