A BIRD-LOVER'S APRIL. 223 



listened every night for a repetition of the yak ; 

 but I heard nothing more of it for a month. 

 Then it came to my ears again, this time from 

 a field between the road and a swamp. Watch- 

 ing my opportunity, while the bird was in the 

 air, I hastened across the field, and stationed 

 myself against a small cedar. He was still 

 clicking high overhead, but soon alighted 

 silently within twenty yards of where I was 

 standing, and commenced to " bleat," prefacing 

 each yak with a fainter syllable which I had 

 never before been near enough to detect. Pres- 

 ently he started once more on his skyward 

 journey. Up he went, in a large spiral, 

 " higher still and higher " till the cedar cut 

 off my view for an instant, after which I could 

 not again get my eye upon him. Whether he 

 saw me or not I cannot tell, but he dropped to 

 the ground some rods away, and did not make 

 another ascension, although he continued to 

 call irregularly, and appeared to be walking 

 about the field. Perhaps by this time the fair 

 one for whose benefit all this parade was in- 

 tended had come out of the swamp to meet and 

 reward her admirer. 



Hoping for a repetition of the same pro- 

 gramme on the following night, I invited a 

 friend from the city to witness it with me ; one 

 who, less fortunate than the " forest seer," had 



