AN ECCENTRIC COSTUME. 209 



hours of last summer's May and June "went 

 their way," if not 



'' As softly as sweet dreams go down the night," 



certainly with interest and pleasure to two bird- 

 students whose ways I have sometimes chroni- 

 cled. 



Most conspicuous, as we toiled upward toward 

 our breezy pasture, was a bird whose chosen 

 station was a fence a wire fence at that. He 

 was a tanager ; not our brilliant beauty in scarlet 

 and black, but one far more gorgeous and eccen- 

 tric in costume, having, with the black wings and 

 tail of our bird, a breast of shining yellow and 

 a cap of crimson. His occupation on the sweet 

 May mornings that he lingered with us, on his 

 way up the mountains for the summer, was the 

 familiar one of getting his living, and to that he 

 gave his mind without reserve. Not once did 

 he turn curious eyes upon us as we sauntered 

 by or rested awhile to watch him. Eagerly his 

 pretty head turned this way and that, but not 

 for us ; it was for the winged creatures of the 

 air he looked, and when one that pleased his 

 fancy fluttered by he dashed out and secured it, 

 returning to a post or the fence just as absorbed 

 and just as eager for the next one. Every time 

 he alighted it was a few feet farther down the 

 fence, and thus he worked his way out of our 

 sight, without seeming aware of our existence. 



