86 BIRD LIFE IN A WESTERN VALLEY 



evident relish gulped down the morsel before 

 diving once more to resume their frolic and 

 work. Each action was quick and decided, 

 manifesting exquisite ease and the perfect 

 adaptability of the birds to their surround- 

 ings. Whenever they tired of such proceed- 

 ings, they adjourned to convenient resting- 

 places at the margin of the brook, where they 

 stood blinking at the sunlight, and repeatedly 

 twittering and curtsying to each other. 



After a while the hen, perched on a moss- 

 grown ledge, called to her mate, just as he 

 happened to float up with a large worm in his 

 beak from the bottom of the stream. He 

 immediately flew towards the ledge, and offered 

 her the dainty he had secured. As he stood in 

 the shallow beneath her, and with gently flutter- 

 ing wings begged that she would accept the tit- 

 bit, and she with much show of coyness and mis- 

 giving stooped to take the tribute, it seemed to 

 me that in the affection of these happy birds I 

 could recognise a sentiment subtly different from 

 mere animal passion if such I may term the 

 instinctive desire to which the matter-of-fact 

 naturalist is accustomed to refer nearly all the 

 actions of beasts and birds in the mating season 

 of the year. 



I cannot explain why it seemed to be so. In 

 those rare brief periods of outdoor study when, 



