4 s —. 
DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 319 
chimney swift, with the cry of a kitten. Far into the 
night you may hear a soloist, but the chorus is silent 
after the sun has set. With the earliest peep of dawn 
they are astir again, down to the water for a bath ; and 
such a splatter! Half a dozen in a place like urchins 
in a swimming pool, and each one trying to make the 
greatest splashing! Heads down, tails up! Heads up, 
tails down! ‘Twisting 
and wriggling, until every 
little feather stands for 
itself and the bare skin ——- 
is plainly visible between 
them. A shake, a shower 
of pearly drops flashing 
(Ss 
*} 
in the sunlight, and a | ay af aye x? 
very porcupine-like little bird fles — , re i “eg 
up to a sunny perch to preen and \¥ ee 
shake and preen again. Before his ei 
long performance is finished, a 447. Arkansas KincprrD. 
lovely golden butterfly flutters by, gyaliiren tn 7 Ire show 
and, regardless of wet wings, out 
dashes the hungry little bird after him. Ten to one he 
gets him, comes back to the perch to breakfast, and 
flies down to a weed stalk below to hunt for crickets or 
grasshoppers. After his appetite is appeased he is ready 
for a scrimmage, and very shortly you may see him tum- 
bling about in midair, the pursued or pursuer of half a 
dozen of his kind in mock combat. 
As soon as the demure gray dames arrive from the 
South, a change comes over the spirit of the bachelor, — 
