August 

‘‘ Her ways are ways of pleasantness,’’ and all 
her paths are picturesque. 
§ 
The world always puts a premium upon in- 
dividuality, even when its manifestations are 
somewhat repugnant to man’s finer instincts. 
For that reason we often admire where we know 
we ought to reprobate, and become extremely 
weary of that which we must confess is highly 
virtuous. 
A bird, one of whose chief attractions is an 
eccentricity of depravity, quite abundant in the 
more open places, and by its habits conspicuous 
quite out of proportion to its size, is the so-called 
‘‘king-bird ’’—a name far too royal for a sleek 
little fellow only seven inches long, playing the 
gentlemanly villain’s part, with a bill murder- 
ous only of bugs and butterflies, but his heart 
ready to fire up at an instant’s notice into the 
savageness of a hawk. Almost all of the small- 
er birds, proverbially timid at all other times of 
the year, are noted for becoming surprisingly 
bold, and almost oblivious of their own safety, in 
defence of their young ; but with this occasion 
past, all their courage flies. In the case of the 
king-bird, however, such spasmodic valor seems 
231 
