August 
culiar acrobatic vocalization. This is the most 
beautiful creature in black and white to be 
found among our song-birds, and as far as I 
could observe, happily unconscious of his fine 
looks. As one compares the male, attired in 
glossy black, and so curiously but elegantly 
decorated in buff and white, with the dingy, 
lustreless, ginghamed female, it looks like fresh 
evidence that the ways of Providence are un- 
equal. It being my misfortune that the bobo- 
link’s ways and mine have converged so little 
in the past, I shall sedulously seek him out, 
trusting he will not be averse to receiving me 
among his numerous list of friends and admir- 
ers. 
y 
In the same field where I found the bobo- 
links it was haying-time; and as I roamed 
about (in criminal idleness, from an agricultu- 
ral point of view), I overheard one farmer call 
out to another, ‘‘ What is that fellow looking 
at, over there ?’’ ‘‘QO, the birds!’’ was the 
reply. ‘* That is another of those fellows from 
the city!’’ I was in doubt, from the tone in 
which this was said, which of the three he held 
in greatest contempt—the birds, the city, or 
237 
