PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 207 
of. Occasionally he would leap to the end of his 
cage, open his mouth wide at “ Brownie,’”’ whose 
cage stood next to his, and sing a comic song; at 
least, it seemed comic. 
These incidents, although they do not prove that 
birds have elaborate games, do prove that they pos- 
sess the play spirit, and no doubt their pastimes and 
amusements are relished fully as much by them as 
ours are by us; perhaps more so. 
VI. 
BIRD DEATHS. 
Ir only some master dramatist could write the 
tragedies of bird land! They would be highly 
exciting, and would afford ample room for the play 
of genius; for there are adventures and disasters 
without number. Perhaps it is on account of the 
many reverses that there is so often a pensive strain 
in the songs of the birds, —a minor chord running 
like a shimmering silver line through the weft of 
the woodland music. Robert Burns, in his “ Address 
to a Woodlark,”’ touched the very marrow of bird 
sadness, and pleaded with the little singer to cease 
its song, or he himself would go distracted, — 
“ Say, was thy little mate unkind, 
And heard thee as the careless wind? 
Oh! nocht but love and sorrow joined 
Sic notes o’ wae could wauken. 
