IKllbere tbe /IDocUtuG^birt) Sings 



out meantime strains so sweet and so 

 flooded with ecstatic feeling that they 

 sounded to me at times almost human. I 

 have heard a soprano in a lift of fortunate 

 self-forgetfulness trill like that above the 

 ordinary register of safety. As I recall 

 the occasion now it seems to me that all 

 the birds in the grove suddenly ceased 

 their clamor to listen to the master singer. 

 Doubtless it was rapt concentration which 

 shut out from my senses everything 

 save the lyric of more than Sapphic in- 

 tensity and abandon. Slowly the bird 

 tumbled, with a peculiar throbbing mo- 

 tion of its wings, down from limb to limb, 

 singing all the while, and finally dropped 

 to the ground, where it stood swaying to 

 and fro with its wings spread and quiver- 

 ing as if exhausted. Just then a female 

 bird, doubtless its mate, took to wing from 

 the spot where she had been chief witness 

 of the exhibition. My point was made : I 

 had discovered beyond question that the 

 dropping-song was a love-lyric. 



The art of nest-building as practised by 

 the mocking-bird shows a good deal of the 

 90 



