284 IN A LOG CAMP 



promptly with the opening of the season. 

 For when the bride is won, the home estab- 

 lished, and the singer settled down to enter- 

 tain his mate, and await the time when the 

 pretty shells shall give up their precious con- 

 tents, and the nest shall " brim over with 

 the load of downy breasts and throbbing 

 wings," the song becomes the calmly happy 

 utterance I have called the common song. It 

 is at this time that a bird has leisure to vary, 

 change, and elaborate his theme, and it is a 

 most pleasing time to study him. 



Sometimes one shall be so happy as to hear 

 what I have called the whisper-song. One 

 must be very near and very silent, for it can 

 be heard only at a distance of a few feet, be- 

 ing delivered with nearly or quite a closed 

 beak, and by no means intended for the public 

 ear. There is a dreamy, rapturous quality in 

 this song which differentiates it from all 

 others. It seems to be addressed neither to 

 the mate, nor to the world at large, but to be 

 simply a soliloquy, an irrepressible bubbling 

 over of his joy of life. And it gives emphatic 

 denial if one were needed to the opin- 

 ion which has been expressed, that a bird 



