Grass is Green 



over a weedy meadow. When the day was still, 

 I have stood on the bank of the Delaware, 

 where the river was almost a mile wide, and 

 heard the cardinal redbird whistling on the op- 

 posite shore. 



" This Carolina wren will be very cautious at 

 first, when building in any outbuilding, and will 

 dart off precipitately when approached, but if it is 

 not disturbed will rapidly gain confidence and be- 

 come as tame as a chipping sparrow. Our birds, 

 first, last, and always, ask to be let alone, and for 

 this granted to them they will repay a hundredfold. 

 While I write these lines there is an indigo-finch 

 perched on a locust-tree, not twenty feet from my 

 window. I can lean far out and listen without the 

 bird noticing me. Why ? Because it has been 

 coming to the old garden for several summers, and 

 no one has disturbed it in any way. It has nested 

 near by, and no one has even looked into the nest. 

 Like many another bird, they leave in autumn, say- 

 ing, t We have had such a good time this year, 

 we will come next summer.' And every year they 

 make good their promise." 



" Do the birds about our houses bring wilder 

 birds near us, the former being unmolested ? " Bea- 

 trice asked, evincing some interest in the subject, or 

 pretending to. 



" I am inclined to think so. There are a good 

 many species that, according to the older ornithol- 

 ogists and some more modern writers, are spoken 

 135 



