A WOODLAND INTIMATE. 41 



quently less appreciative of such favors as 

 I had to bestow ; but it was very amusing 

 to see how tightly he shut his bill, as if his 

 mind were made up, and no power on earth 

 should shake it. 



If any inquisitive person raises the ques- 

 tion whether I am absolutely certain of 

 this bird's being the male, I must answer 

 in the negative. The couple were dressed 

 alike, as far as I could make out, save that 

 the female was much the more brightly 

 washed with yellow on the sides of the 

 body ; and my present discrimination of 

 them was based upon close attention to 

 this point, as well as upon my careful and 

 apparently successful effort not to confuse 

 the two, after the one which I knew to be 

 the female (the one, that is, which had 

 done most of the sitting, and had all along 

 been so very familiar) had joined the other 

 among the branches. I had no downright 

 proof, it must be acknowledged, nor could 

 I have had any without killing and dissect- 

 ing the bird ; but my own strong convic- 

 tion was and is that the male had grown 

 fearless by observing my treatment of his 

 spouse, but from some difference of taste, 



