182 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



Then see him spring in air with his wide wings, azure and 

 white, and dark barred, graceful tail, spread to the admiring 

 gaze of her he woos, float round and round her passive form ; 

 then to return again in rapturous fervor to her side, to over- 

 whelm her glowing charms with yet more subduing graces. 



But the fun of it all is, to see our Euphuist practicing these 

 seductive arts by himself. You will often catch him alone, 

 thus making love to his own beauty, with an ardor fully 

 equal to that of the scene we have just described. Indeed, 

 I am not sure that it does not surpass it. For, like other 

 dandies, he is most in love with his own beauty. It is the 

 richest and most fantastic scene I know of, among the comic- 

 alities of the natural world, to catch him in one of these 

 practicing humors: he does court to his own charms with 

 such a gay and earnest enthusiasm ; he apes all the gestures, 

 and the love-lorn notes of his seemingly volcanic amours, 

 and turning his head back, to gaze on his own fine coat with 

 such fantastic earnest, that one can scarcely resist roaring 

 with laughter. 



We like the impish philosophy that can thus burlesque its 

 own follies. But his accomplishments, as we have hinted, 

 are multifarious. Understand, we do not by any means set 

 out to defend the morals, but the character of our friend Jay. 

 We are opposed, in principle, to using hard names, especially 

 to so courtly a personage as this ; but, in plain truth, we 

 must say, as we before insinuated, that he is one of the most 

 arrant of thiefs and plunderers. In addition to the assumed 

 character of knightly defender of the wide woods against 

 all intrusive comers, he takes upon himself the superlative 

 one of care-taker and inspector-general of his neighbor's 

 nests. So great is his solicitude in their behoof, that the mo- 

 ment his watchful eye perceives that the weary parents have 

 left the nest for food and recreation, he directly glides into 

 their places, and lest some harm from cunning snake or mis- 

 chievous squirrel should come to the dear speckled treasures, 

 he takes one after another to his warm bosom, or his crap ; 



