70 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



Two hours spent under one tree, hearing 

 that drumming at intervals without catching 

 sight of the bird, is quite enough at one time, 

 and I have the credit of not missing much as 

 a rule. 



Their habits can be studied in captivity, I 

 know ; but they are artificial ones, to a very 

 great degree formed by the force of circum- 

 stances, to which all captive birds so readily 

 adapt themselves. Their breeding, or we will 

 say their nesting, season is the only time when 

 they lose their heads a little, and relax their 

 vigilance all very proper and excusable ; for 

 as one of our great poets has written, " Love 

 will still be lord of all." 



The nimble nuthatch, with his blue-grey 

 back, black eye - streak, white throat, and 

 orange-red breast, is, to say the least of him, 

 a very pleasing bird to look at. But one can 

 say more than that, for all his ways arid 

 means, in fact, all the bird's habits, are quite 

 as pleasing as is his plumage. The wryneck, 

 cuckoo, and swallow are said to be the three 

 harbingers of spring. Yet the nuthatch is 

 the first one to let folks know, by his loud 

 liquid notes for the happy creature fairly 

 bubbles them out that the spring is at hand, 



