30 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



in seeing it run away, while the dog eyed it with 

 quizzical look, than I would in shooting at it two 

 or three months later! And day after day I re- 

 turned to see them until the azalea began to un- 

 foid its pink upon the hills, and the fragrance of 

 the magnolia to flood the swamps where its pure 

 white shone, until the scarlet tanager flamed in 

 the green of the maple, and the rich hues of the 

 redstart illumined the shades of the hickory. 



Soon now my little friends became as hard to 

 find as the yellow-breasted chat, whose rich voice 

 seemed never mute in the depths of the thicket. 

 In the damp ground along the brook, where the 

 little "teter" snipe glided so softly about, and 

 the perfume of the muskrat rose on the evening 

 air, I could find where their little bills had bored 

 for worms, and occasionally late in the evening 

 could start the mother along some boggy ground 

 by the water; but where were the young ones ? 



And when the carol of the robin was dying 

 away in the orchard, the music of the thrush 

 waning upon the elm, and the song of the cat- 

 bird growing feebler in the hedge, how easy it 

 was to find my little friends again, and how swift 

 they were upon the wing, though not of full size ! 



