THE LOVER'S ANTICS 135 



Meantime the damsel did n't approve in 

 the least of the demonstrations in her honor, 

 for she flew at him with a sharp u phit ! " 

 Usually he vanished before her wrath, but 

 if he lingered, she hurried him with a touch 

 of her beak. Occasionally she flew away in 

 the midst of his rhapsody as if to show her 

 disdain, upon which he changed his tone, 

 uttered some low conversational notes in a 

 plaintive tone, or became silent. 



The birds were so absorbed in their own 

 affairs that they did not usually notice me, 

 sitting, of course, perfectly silent there. Once 

 the bride-elect flew almost in my face, and 

 fairly screamed at me. But I attributed that 

 to nervous excitement, for she was greatly 

 disturbed. At another time she came and 

 looked over at me in a most expressive way, 

 as if to say, " Did you ever see such a silly 

 performance ? What would you do with such 

 a fellow ? " and then she turned on him with 

 fury in her eye. 



Sometimes she would not endure the an- 

 tics of her lover for a second, and again she 

 would be patient, perhaps a minute, but all 

 the time restless and growing more and more 



