birds' eggs 75 



song of battle too. The male yellow-birds flit 

 about from point to point, apparently assuring 

 each other of the highest sentiments of esteem 

 and consideration, at the same time that one 

 intimates to the other that he is carrying his 

 joke a little too far. It has the effect of saying 

 with mild and good-humored surprise, " Why, 

 my dear sir, this is my territory ; you surely do 

 not mean to trespass; permit me to salute you, 

 and to escort you over the line." Yet the 

 intruder does not always take the hint. Occa- 

 sionally the couple have a brief sparring match 

 in the air, and mount up and up, beak to beak, 

 to a considerable height, but rarely do they 

 actually come to blows. 



- The yellow-bird becomes active and conspic- 

 uous after the other birds have nearly all Avith- 

 drawn from the stage and become silent, their 

 broods reared and flown. August is his month, 

 his festive season. It is his turn now. The 

 thistles are ripening their seeds, and his nest is 

 undisturbed by jay-bird or crow. He is the first 

 bird I hear in the morning, circling and swing- 

 ing through the air in that peculiar undulating 

 flight and calling out on the do^vnward curve 

 of each stroke, "Here we go, here we go!" 

 Every hour in the day he indulges in his cir- 

 cling, billowy flight. It is a part of his musi- 

 cal performance. His course at such times is 

 a deeply undulating line, like the long gentle 

 roll of the summer sea, the distance from crest 

 to crest or from valley to valley being probably 

 thirty feet; this distance is made with but one 



