264 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



drinking at the sap fountains, a female arrived. 

 The male greeted her with squeaks and intense 

 humming. She alighted on the tree near the 

 drills, and the male then hurled himself through 

 the air with amazing speed, describing a curve 

 such as would be drawn by a violently swung 

 pendulum attached to a cord fifteen or eighteen 

 feet long. The female was at the lowest point of 

 the arc described by her vehement admirer, and 

 she sat perfectly motionless while he swung past 

 her eight times. When he moved fastest — that 

 is, when he approached and passed her — he pro- 

 duced in some unknown way a high, clear, sweet, 

 musical note, louder even than the humming 

 which was incessant during his flight. In this 

 first performance the male moved from north to 

 south. A few minutes later he went through the 

 dance a second time, describing a shorter curve 

 and moving east and west. Still a third time, 

 when the female had taken position in the midst 

 of a few dense branches, the male faced her, and 

 in a short arc, the plane of which was horizontal, 

 flew back and forth before her. I had seen this 

 performance once before, in July, 1890, at an- 

 other orchard, and at that time I fancied that 

 both birds took part in the flight, but in this 

 case the birds were close above me as I lay 

 among the ferns, and there was no difficulty in 

 seeing clearly all that they did. During July, 



