220 THE BLUEBIRD. 



their neighbors, and held possession of it for some 

 days, but I believe finally withdrew, rather than live 

 amid such a squeaky, noisy colony. I have heard 

 that these swallows, when ejected from their homes 

 in that way by the phcebe-bird, have been known to 

 fall to arid mason up the entrance to the nest while 

 their enemy was Fnside of it, thus having a revenge as 

 complete and cruel as anything in human annals. 



The bluebirds and the house-wrens more fre 

 quently come into collision. A few years ago I put 

 up a little bird-house in the back end of my garden 

 for the accommodation of the wrens, and every sea- 

 son a pair have taken up their abode there. One 

 spring a pair of bluebirds looked into the tenement 

 and lingered about several days, leading me to hope 

 that they would conclude to occupy it. But they 

 finally went away, and later in the season the wrens 

 appeared, and after a little coquetting, were regularly 

 installed in their old quarters and were as happy as 

 only wrens can be. 



One of our younger poets, Myron Benton, saw a 

 'ittle bird 



" Ruffled with whirlwind of his ecstasies," 



which must have been the wren, as I know of no 

 other bird that so throbs and palpitates with music 

 us this little vagabond. And the pair I speak of 

 leemed exceptionably happy, and the male had a 

 small tornado of song in his crop that kept him 

 "ruffled" every moment in the day. But before 



