FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



the female while she worked. He did sing some, but the greater 

 part of his time was spent carrying dry grass and tiny weed stalks 

 of which the nest was built; he even entered it and placed his 

 offerings himself, without protest from the female. 



She was a grayish brown, but he was a gorgeous glinting blue, 

 deep to purplish in the strongest shades, gleaming almost silvery 

 white in the highest lights on his sleek head and neck, black 

 feathers in his wings and tail. Jie made an exquisite picture 

 when he alighted on the honeysuckle among the waxy leaves and 

 yellowish red bloom, or perched above on the wall singing 

 snatches as he worked. When he made a business of music he 

 selected the topmost twig of the tallest tree on the west of the 

 Cabin, pouring out a reckless abandon of song that lacked the 

 melody, yet in a way reminded me of. the Canaries of the bird- 

 house. He always began with a flourish of downward grace notes 

 then raised clear and strong above the ordinary piano keyboard 

 in notes rising and falling, then a level group of three, a drop and 

 three more, then back to the beginning. He could repeat this 

 full strain several times to the minute, while he sang it almost 

 uninterruptedly for an hour in the morning and sometimes for 

 nearly two in the evening, from five to seven. This musical 

 demonstration drove the Canaries almost crazy, so a dozen at a 

 time they lifted their voices and tried to drown his notes, but 

 after a few days he mounted his twig on the cut-leaved birch 

 closest his nest and sang in an ecstasy of oblivion to every- 

 thing save the swelling emotions of his own tiny heart. Such 

 outpourings of song I had never before heard. I am sure he 

 sang his strain over with slight change a thousand times a day. 



When he was not singing, after the nest was completed, he 

 worked for us in a double capacity. He hunted tiny worms and 

 beetles, then searched any last year's dead stalks he could find 

 for seed; from his industry, he must have made a high record both 



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