BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



the oriole's song. ChucJ^^ chuck-a-choOt chucks chuck, chuck, 

 chuck, he sings in rapid, vivacious strain as the w^ind rocks him 

 to and fro on his perch at the top of a madrono tree. We 

 betake ourselves to the dusty road, where a snake has left its 

 track as it journeyed over the land, and v^here the dainty print 

 of the quail's foot tells of the bcind that but late hurried into 

 the bushes. 



Hius passes the month of May among the birds. Their 

 lives are not, as many suppose, utterly irresponsible and free 

 from care, but, on the contrary, ever varied and ever altering — 

 influenced by every change of season, hurried on by every new 

 impulse of their being, guided by that destiny in which their 

 own wills play but a minor part. May is the time when the 

 species is to be perpetuated, if at all, so the whole energy of 

 the bird nature is directed to that end. It is a wearisome ordeal 

 for the mother, but a happy one, nevertheless, for life means 

 more to the palpitating spirit at such times, and the bird is 

 exalted to a nearer kinship with man. There is the delight of 

 house-building, the conjugal felicity of the mated pair, the 

 pride of the mother and the sweet solicitude of the father, the 

 pangs of disappointment, the wearisome doubts and cares of 

 rearing the young, the training for the flight; and then, when 

 all is done, the sundering of tender ties — the parting of mother 

 and offspring. Each goes its way to fight the stem battle of 

 existence, following the dictates of its own nature, and doing 

 what little it can to make the world a more beautiful and a 

 more intense reality. 



[98] 



