SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 159 



urith destruction by their natural enemy, to become 

 so terrified as to seek safety in the presence of man. 

 I was once startled, while living in a country vil- 

 lage, to behold, on entering my room at noon, one 

 October day, a quail sitting upon my bed. The af- 

 frighted and bewildered bird instantly started for the 

 open window, into which it had no doubt been driven 

 by a hawk.) 



The crow-blackbird has all the natural cunning of 

 his prototype, the crow. In one of the inner courts 

 of the Treasury building there is a fountain with sev- 

 eral trees growing near. By midsummer, the black- 

 birds become so bold as to venture within this court. 

 Various fragments of food, tossed from the surround- 

 ing windows, reward their temerity. When a crust 

 of dry bread defies their beaks, they have been seen 

 to drop it into the water, and when it had become 

 soaked sufficiently, to take it out again. 



They build a nest of coarse sticks and mud, the 

 whole burden of the enterprise seeming to devolve 

 upon the female. For several successive mornings 

 just after sunrise, I used to notice a pair of them fly- 

 ing to and fro in the air above me, as I hoed in the 

 garden, directing their course, on the one hand, to a 

 marshy piece of ground about half a mile distant, 

 and disappearing on their return, among the trees 

 about the Capitol. Returning, the female always had 

 her beak loaded with building material, while the 

 male, carrying nothing, seemed to act as her escort, 

 flying a little above and in advance of her, and utter- 



