A FLYCATCHER AND A SPARROW 265 



world), and did not propose to be hindered. The 

 birds were there, and that was enough. 



And now, to my intense satisfaction, I found 

 that they were doing just what the handbook de- 

 scribed : springing into the air for a few feet, 

 after the manner of long-billed marsh wrens, and 

 with fluttering wings dropping slowly back to the 

 perch, uttering their sweet, " She, pretty, pretty 

 she," as they descended. I secured somewhat 

 fuller observations of their plumage, also, and be- 

 came morally certain which means something 

 less than scientifically certain, though really, 

 taking Mr. Attwater's list of the birds of San 

 Antonio as a guide, there is nothing else they 

 can be that the singers were Cassin sparrows. 1 



And glad I am to have heard them. I cannot 

 speak for others ; judgment in such matters must 

 always be largely a question of personal taste ; 

 but for myself I have heard few bird songs that 

 satisfy me so well ; so quaint and original, yet so 

 true and simple. San Antonio mockingbirds are 

 numberless, and their performances are wonder- 

 ful ; I think I should never tire of them ; but 

 somehow those six quiet notes of the sparrow 

 seem to go deeper home. 



1 And so they were, on the testimony of the Washington 

 ornithologist above quoted, who knows both bird and song. 



