A CEREMONIOUS APPROACH. 177 



to pass away the time. She stepped from the 

 trunk upon a twig on one side, stayed a little 

 while, then passed to one on the other side, 

 lingered a few moments, and so she went on. 

 When she arrived at the height of two feet she 

 perched on a small dead twig, and remained a 

 long time certainly twenty minutes abso- 

 lutely motionless. It was hard to see her, and 

 if I had not watched her progress from the first, 

 I should not have suspected her presence. A 

 leaf would hide her, even the crossing of two 

 twigs was ample screen, and when she was still 

 it was hopeless to look for her. The only way 

 we were able to keep track of either of the pair 

 was by their incessant motions. 



The Great Carolinian had a peculiar custom 

 which showed that his coming with song was a 

 ceremony he would not dispense with. He would 

 often start off singing, gradually withdraw till 

 fifty or seventy-five feet away, singing at every 

 pause, and then, if one watched him closely, he 

 might see him stop, drop to the ground, and hunt 

 about in silence. When he was ready to come 

 again, he would fly quietly a little way off, and 

 then begin his singing and approaching, as if he 

 had been a mile away. He never sang when on 

 the ground after food, but so soon as he finished 

 eating, he flew to a perch at least two feet high, 

 generally between six and ten, and sometimes as 

 high as twenty feet, and sang. 



