MADAM GAVE THE CUE. 109 



could see a dry way, so I took a step or two for- 

 ward. This was too much I this I had never be- 

 fore done, and I believe those birds were well 

 used to my habits, for the moment I passed my 

 usual bounds a cry rang out, loud, and a bird 

 flew past my head. She alighted near me. It 

 was a tawny thrush ; and when one of those shy 

 birds, who fly if I turn my head behind the 

 blinds, gets bold, there 's a good reason for it. 

 I thanked madam for giving me my cue; I 

 knew now it was her baby, and I walked slowly 

 on. 



I had to go slowly, for the placing of each 

 foot required study. It is surprising what a 

 quantity of water will stand on the steep sides 

 of a mountain. Some parts of this one were 

 like a marsh, or a saturated sponge, and every- 

 where a cow had stepped was a small pool. As 

 I proceeded the thrush grew more and more un- 

 easy. She came so near me that I saw she had 

 a gauzy- winged fly in her mouth, another proof 

 that she had young ones near. She called, with- 

 out opening her beak, her usual low "quee." 



Finding a dry spot, and the baby-cry having 

 ceased, I sat down to consider and to wait. 

 Then the bird seemed suddenly to remember how 

 compromising her mouthful was, and she planted 

 herself on a branch before my ej'-es, deliberately 

 ate that fly and wiped her beak, as who should 



