64 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 



March, when I paid it a farewell visit, its 

 owner was still at work lining it with fine 

 grass. At that time it was a comfort- 

 able-looking and really elaborate structure. 

 Both the birds came to look at me as I stood 

 on the piazza. They perched together on 

 the top of a stake so narrow that there was 

 scarcely room for their feet; and as they 

 stood thus, side by side, one of them struck 

 its beak several times against the beak of 

 the other, as if in play. I wished them joy 

 of their expected progeny, and was the more 

 ready to believe they would have it for this 

 little display of sportive sentimentality. 



It was a distinguished company that fre- 

 quented that row of narrow back yards on 

 the edge of the sand-hills. As a new-comer, 

 I found the jays (sometimes there were ten 

 under my eye at once) the most entertain- 

 ing members of it, but if I had been a 

 dweller there for the summer, I should per- 

 haps have altered my opinion ; for the group 

 contained four of the finest of Floridian 

 songsters, the mocking-bird, the brown 

 thrasher, the cardinal grosbeak, and the 

 Carolina wren. Rare morning and evening 

 concerts those cottagers must have. And 



