BIRD CURIOS. 25 
_and brought me to a full stop. It swept down lilt- 
ingly from a high, bushy bank some rods back from 
the stream, and at once proclaimed itself as the 
rhapsody of the cat-bird. Anxious to watch the 
brilliant vocalist in his singing attitudes, I ap- 
proached the acclivity, and soon espied him in the 
midst of the dense copse, which was not yet covered 
with foliage. He redoubled his efforts when he saw 
an appreciative auditor standing near. Presently a 
quaint impulse seized his throbbing, music-filled 
bosom. He swung gracefully to the ground, picked 
up a fragment of newspaper, leaped up to his perch 
again, and then, holding the paper harp in his beak, 
resumed his song with more vigor than before. All 
the while his beady eyes sparkled with good-natured 
raillery, as if he expected me to laugh at his unique 
performance ; and, of course, I was able to accom- 
modate him without half an effort. An errant gust 
of wind suddenly wrenched the bit of paper from 
his bill and bore it to the ground. The minstrel 
darted after, and straightway recovered his elusive 
prize, flew up to his perch, and again roused the 
echoes of woodland and vale with his rollicking 
song, the paper harp imparting a peculiar resonance 
to his tones; while his air of banter seemed to 
challenge me to a musical contest. I laughingly 
declined in the interest of my own reputation. 
He was one of the choicest minstrels of bird land 
I have ever heard, — barring the sex, a Jenny Lind 
or an Adelina Patti, —his voice being of excellent 
timbre, his tones pure and liquid, and his technical 
