70 THE QUEST OF A THRUSH 



tones, and evidently with serious business 

 on hand. The three no longer played to- 

 gether, but they never quarreled. 



This trio and their mates gave utterance 

 to a great variety of notes, both musical and 

 conversational, and some were strikingly like 

 articulate speech. Also, both sexes sang. 

 The males had, in addition to the usual sort 

 of song, another peculiar seven-note strain, 

 very different from anything I ever heard. 

 Sometimes in the middle of this song the 

 singer would interpolate an exquisitely rap- 

 turous note or two, as if the " beloved ob- 

 ject " had suddenly appeared. 



Before the end of May the three families 

 were settled and busily building. One be- 

 fore my window on the upper branch of an 

 elm where I could easily watch it, another 

 in the top of an apple-tree, and the third in 

 a maple across the road where 



" High o'er the loud and dusty road 

 The soft gray cup in safety hung." 



The elm -tree nest was framed when I dis- 

 covered it and the female was finishing it, 

 working entirely from the inside, thrusting 

 the material through and drawing the ends 



