V. 



WHIMSICAL WATS IN BIRD-LAND. 



" irritant, iterant, maddening bird ! " 



ONE lovely evening in May, I was walking 

 down a quiet road, looking, as usual, for birds, 

 when all at once there burst upon the sweet 

 silence a loud alarm. " Chack ! chack ! chack ! 

 too! too! t-t-t ! quawk! quawk!" at the top of 

 somebody's loud resonant voice, as if the whole 

 bird- world had suddenly gone mad. I looked 

 about, expecting to see a general rush to the 

 spot ; but, to my surprise, no one seemed to no- 

 tice it. A catbird on the fence went on with his 

 bewitching song, and a wood thrush in the shrub- 

 bery dropped not a note of his heavenly melody. 



" They have heard it before ; it must be a 

 chat," I said ; and lo ! on the top twig of a tall 

 tree, brilliant in the setting sun, stood the singer. 

 Never before had I seen one of the family show 

 himself freely ; and while I gazed he proceeded 

 to exhibit another phase of chat manners, new 

 to me, wing antics, of which I had read. He 

 flew out toward another tree-top, going very 

 slowly, with his legs hanging awkwardly straight 



