116 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



meant, "May-flies immediately!" This was too 

 much for Mr. Prothonotary. With a farewell look 

 at the Banker, he turned his back and dived into the 

 nest, placing himself entirely at the mercy of this 

 giant who was keeping guard over his home. Seven 

 times he did this while we watched, bringing in two 

 beetles, a small wasp, a fly, and three May-flies. 

 The hen-bird would come up time and time again 

 with a fly in her beak, but never could quite muster 

 up courage enough to go into the nest, but absent- 

 mindedly swallowing the fly herself, would go off. 



We had a wonderful chance to study the coloring 

 of this rare bird. The cock-bird had a bright black 

 eye which showed vividly against his yellow cheek, 

 as did his long black bill. His colors were gray, 

 yellow, and olive. The underside of his tail was pure 

 white, and he had a white edge to his wings, while 

 the top of the wings was greenish-yellow. The whole 

 head, throat, and breast were of an intense golden, 

 almost orange yellow, and the wings were bluish-gray. 

 The bird itself was just about the size of the common 

 black-and-white warbler. The female was of the same 

 coloring, only much paler. 



After that came the tragedy of the day for me. 

 An overhanging bough knocked off my glasses, and 

 they sank in the black waters of the marsh and con- 

 tinued sunk, in spite of my frantic groping and diving 

 for them. The rest of the day I realized how the 

 blinded galley-slaves felt who were chained to the 

 oar in mediaeval times. The Banker kindly described 

 to me all the sixty-five different kinds of birds he 



