100 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



Was he really here or did I doze and dream his 

 presence ? 



Sometimes I wonder if the squirrels do not 

 listen to the crows and are warned of danger. 

 A crow evidently wished to visit the mulberry 

 tree but stopped in another tree a few rods off 

 and "ha-ha-ed" a number of times. Then start- 

 ing for the mulberry he saw me and with a 

 shriek of anger and alarm away he flew. If the 

 squirrel which ran from the tree as I approached 

 was waiting to return, and understood crow lan- 

 guage or the meaning of the tone, he was in- 

 formed that there was a man in ambush wait- 

 ing for him and so never came back. 



The love-making days of many birds are for 

 this season over. The sterner duties of provid- 

 ing for a growing family are at hand. The 

 woods do not resound with matin songs and 

 carols as they did a month ago. The softer 

 chirps and more subdued twitters and warbles 

 in which birds gossip and make known their 

 wishes and successes have taken the place of the 

 louder, more musical songs. The birds do not 

 sit on the topmost twigs and sing of love. They 

 flit about on the lower limbs and near or on the 

 ground with an eye not open for a mate, but for 

 a dangling caterpillar or fuzzy gnat. 



Late in the evening a few days ago I saw in 

 my yard in the city a robin with a long angle- 

 worm doubled several times in its bill. It 



