WREN LOVE-MAKING 239 



edness, and idiosyncrasies of many sorts. He 

 never fails to make an interesting study. 



Never did a personage of his inches pour 

 out such floods of rapture. It was luxury 

 to lie and listen to the gushing, liquid melody 

 that floated into the window at my head. 



I knew it was courtship-time, and wren 

 love-making is not of the common hackneyed 

 sort. It is the unique custom of that family 

 to select and furnish a home, and then win 

 a bride by song, calling her out of the uni- 

 verse by his charm of voice. Surely no more 

 winsome strains could be demanded by the 

 most exacting of little brown wren-maidens. 



Knowing this custom, I was always on 

 hand with his first note, sharing his watch, 

 and eager to welcome the unknown un- 

 known to me who was to respond to his 

 eloquent appeals. 



Sometimes I slipped quietly out of the 

 sleep-bound house to enjoy the mystic charm 

 of those hours when all the world is in dream- 

 land. It is a strange, almost a weird feel- 

 ing to have the whole green world to oneself, 

 with only birds for neighbors. But by ex- 

 perience only can one understand the rapture 



