120 A TINY TILTER. 



head and back over the eyes, like the frontlet of a 

 boy's cap. A ring runs around the eye ; his lower 

 parts are whitish ; the outer tail-feathei's are white, 

 while the central ones are black. 



Having introduced you to this Liliputian in 

 feathers, I am ready to tell you something about 

 his habits. Never shall I forget the bright June 

 day on which I formed his acquaintance. I was 

 sauntering through a pleasant woodland that 

 sloped up from the banks of a broad river, study- 

 ing the birds, as usual, when I heai-d a little lisping 

 mew above me in the oak saplings. On looking 

 Tip, I espied two small birds flitting about uneas- 

 ily, and I knew at once that I had at last found 

 the blue-gray gnat-catcher, for which I had been 

 on the lookout for so long a time, having often 

 read the descriptions of him in my bird manuals. 



But what was the cause of the pair's agitation ? 

 I peered up into the trees a while, watching their 

 movements with intense interest, when io ! one of 

 them flitted into the cup of what looked like a 

 moss-covered knot in the fork of a branch and the 

 main stem of a sapling. There the bird sat as 

 cosy as you please, turning her head now and then 

 to glance down at me. Suddenly it dawned upon 

 my mind that I had not only discovered a bird that 



