A SUMMER AT HOME. 211 



to my woods in early summer! Then consider the 

 crows. Do we not only need to hear them, to guess 

 their state of mind ? The quarrels, the planning, the cry 

 of alarm, the assurances to their timid young ; all these 

 utterances are widely different, and can no more be ex- 

 pressed by the syllable "caw" than can our language 

 be said to be the letter " A." It has been said of both 

 rooks and crows, that they hold courts of justice. Let 

 me match this by saying that I once saw a crow "spout- 

 ing poetry ;" at least, it expressed a great variety of 

 sounds, and accompanied them with gestures of the 

 head and wings. It certainly had the appearance of 

 poetical declaration. I afterwards learned that corn 

 soaked in New Jersey whiskey had been placed for 

 that crow, in a field near by. 



! The cool weather of late has not quieted or driven 

 off all the tropical birds that venture here in midsum- 

 mer. The humming-birds, for instance, are active and 

 high - tempered, as usual. Their nesting is now about 

 over, and they have more time to pick a quarrel, which 

 they do on all available occasions. 



The difficulty of finding the nests of liumming-birds 

 is not to be wondered at, when we remember how nicely 

 they are saddled to the upper side of horizontal 

 branches; and usually the limbs of trees that have 

 knotty excrescences, in appearance much like the nests 

 themselves. Still, the cunning of this bird is apt to be 

 one-sided. After effectually hiding the nest, so far as 

 our unaided senses are concerned, they often publish its 

 whereabouts by unwise actions. If you chance to draw 



