BIRD SONGS AND BIRD TALK 221 



see any reason in the nature of things why 

 female birds should not have musical sus- 

 ceptibilities and musical accomplishments ; 

 but I am constrained to doubt. It is most 

 likely, I think, that the opinion has arisen 

 from the fact that adult males a year or 

 more old, and fathers of families some- 

 times continue to wear the gray, sparrow-like 

 costume of the gentler sex. 



My bird of this morning dropped from 

 his perch while I was trying to get nearer to 

 him, and could not be found again. I still 

 suppose that the flock is spending the season 

 somewhere not far off. I have lived with 

 myself too long to imagine that birds must 

 be absent because I fail to discover them. 



Half an hour before, in almost the same 

 place, I had stopped to look at six birds 

 perched in a bare treetop. They were so 

 silent, so motionless, and so closely bunched, 

 that I put up my opera-glass expecting to 

 find them cedar waxwings. Instead, they 

 were nothing but blue jays. While my glass 

 was still on them, the whole flock seemed to 

 be taken with a dancing fit. This lasted for 

 a quarter of a second, more or less, and was 



