A DAINTY LOVER. 



All animal life is wonderful and much 

 of it is beautiful, but it seems to me there 

 can be nothing prettier or more subtle 

 in all the immense accumulation of the 

 folk lore of human courtship and mar- 

 riage than the following practice of a cer- 

 tain Mexican bird. 



He belongs to a rarely beautiful spe- 

 cies of the Paradise family. 



To shield the privacy of his wooing 

 and wedding he builds a dainty little 

 cone-shaped hut, about which he con- 



trives a marvelous little landscape gar- 

 den. 



First he makes a sward of green moss 

 and beds and parterres of crimson ber- 

 ries, tiny bright flowers and gold and 

 silver sand and grains. Here and there 

 he puts a pearly pebble or tiny pink shell. 

 And so long as his love making lasts he 

 drags away and replaces each flower as 

 it fades, keeping the little Eden tidy, gay 

 and sweet for his tiny love. 



This sounds like fiction, but is scien- 

 tific fact. Louise Jamison. 



A BIRD NOTE. 



Robin Feeding Young: Scene, the 

 base of a large pine tree in the corner of 

 a lawn ; actors, a mother robin and two 

 of her young. 



I was much interested in their proceed- 

 ings and watched them for some time. 

 One of the young ones did not seem to 

 understand matters very clearly and often 

 failed to do what mother robin wished it 

 to. The other one, however, was a very 

 apt pupil, and did many bright things. 

 Finally it began to gather food on its own 

 account and succeeded in capturing sev- 



eral worms, small butterflies, etc. But it 

 did not stop here ; it remembered its nest 

 mate, and, following the example of the 

 mother bird, collected food and placed it 

 in the mouth of the less active learner. 

 A very good example of how closely par- 

 ents are imitated, in the bird world, as 

 well as in the human subject. 



The above incident as witnessed and 

 recorded in the writer's note book, seem 

 too good to be lost sight of, and I trust 

 they may prove of interest to all. 



Berton Mercer. 



GOLDENROD. 



As nature lifts her gates from week to week, 

 New beauties rise God's wondrous power to speak; 

 And now, clad in her glory as of old, 

 The Goldenrod uplifts her crowns of gold. 



John Wesley Waite. 



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