May 



one day a large and unknown specimen. For 

 four days and four nights I cherished the delu- 

 sion that it was a bittern a slightly vulgar 

 and questionable member of the heron family. 

 Not that this was anything to be particularly 

 boastful about, but it was at least something 

 fresh, and like other people I sometimes like to 

 make new acquaintances, even if I drop them. 

 I had a faint misgiving, however, that I was in 

 error, and consulted his remains in the Museum. 

 Every ornithologist will sympathize with me in 

 my mortification when I found that it was no 

 bittern, but only an immature night heron ! 

 Of all the mistakes one can make in this pur- 

 suit, the most humiliating is that of reckoning 

 some half-grown wretch as a new species. 



Among some blossoms that kindly open be- 

 fore the leaves are out, appeared, on the 5th of 

 the month, the first humming-bird the most 

 exquisite gem in all the galaxy. An admirable 

 creation from almost every point of view as 

 delicate as the cobweb that can cause its death, 

 of such emotional intensity that even terror alone 

 may quench its life, of ethereal mould and re- 

 splendent color, this tropical atom is, notwith- 

 standing, lion-hearted to attack even a man in de- 

 fence of its nest. Valor and grace ne'er found 



