206 IN BIRD LAND. 
is sometimes kept up for several minutes. It is very 
comical, the only drawback being that the birds 
themselves do not laugh. Why they should engage 
in so ridiculous a performance with so serious an air, 
is a problem that still belongs to the unknown. 
A cut-throat finch, a pet, was, as a rule, a very 
sedate little body, but one day he had to come 
down from his pedestal to get rid of his surplus of 
feeling. This he did by dancing a sort of jig to his 
own music, swaying his body to and fro in a most 
laughable way. On another day an English sparrow 
flew upon his cage, which was hanging on the veranda, 
when “ Pompey” turned his head toward his visitor, 
burst into song, and bobbed his head from side to 
side. No doubt the sparrow felt that he was receiv- 
ing an ovation. 
A most laughable incident occurred one day in 
my large cage of birds. “Flip,” a fine young wood- 
thrush, was rehearsing his song. A young thrasher 
leaped up beside him on the perch. ‘The two birds 
turned their heads to each other, and looked into each 
other’s eyes a moment ; then Flip opened his mouth 
at his visitor, and broke into song, the tones coming 
right out of his gold-lined throat. All the while he 
jerked his head from side to side or up and down in 
perfect time with his music, his eye gleaming intelli- 
gently, as if he enjoyed the fun. Even my loud out- 
burst of laughter did not put a stop to the little farce. 
Flip was a bright bird. He afterward had a cage 
all to himself, and regaled his hosts with many a 
cheerful song, such as only the wood-thrush is master 
