WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



while her mate, with rare diligence and assiduity, 

 brings her the insects he has captured, and now 

 and then "spells" her at her brooding. The yel- 

 low-throat is a good hunter, loving to prowl about 

 the edges of streams where insects abound, and to 

 snatch them from grass-blade and leaflet, or pick 

 them up from the ground. It is a pretty sight to 

 see him work, and he is no mean assistant of the 

 gardener; but he displays little of the aerial nim- 

 bleness of certain of his cousins, such as the red- 

 start. 



It is astonishing to watch an American red- 

 start, poised on fluttering wings just over the long 

 grass until he is a mere blur of yellow and black, 

 trying to catch some agile gnat that has risen from 

 the water. There is a contest of quick wits and 

 muscles for you! Presently the bird succeeds, 

 flings out his sharp zee-zee, and, darting up, alights 

 upon a low horn-beam to swallow the morsel, where- 

 upon the yellow-throat cocks up his bright eye 

 and demands, saucily : " Did ye get it ? Did ye get 

 it?" The red-start rests a moment, then looks 

 carefully around him. Suddenly he leaps out, 

 circles a yard or two, and returns to his perch a 

 failure ; but he has hardly touched it before he dives 

 headlong to the ground, turns a somersault, his 



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