88 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



days of tournament and joust, when knights 

 started out with leveled lances to give battle to 

 every one they met. He is a fearless little war- 

 rior, snapping his bill ominously as he charges, 

 full tilt, at his enemy. 



Last summer on passing a thicket I heard this 

 snapping, together with loud calls of che-beck', 

 and stopped to see what was happening. There, 

 in a low willow, I found a family of young sun- 

 ning themselves while their mother brought them 

 their dinner. It seemed a most peaceable scene, 

 but a picket fence ran along just back of the wil- 

 low, and I soon discovered that this was the tilt 

 yard. Whenever a song sparrow or pewee hap- 

 pened to light there and stretch its wings for a 

 sun bath, the fierce little mother would suddenly 

 appear, dart at the unoffending bird, and fairly 

 throw him off the fence with her abrupt onset. 



After unseating her enemy she would fly off as 

 fast as she had come, career about in the air till 

 she had snapped up a fly or miller, dart back, 

 thrust it into one of the open mouths with a jab 

 that threatened to decapitate the little one, and 

 seemed to mean, " There, take it quick if you 've 

 got to have it," and with a flirt of the tail and 

 wings, before I had time for a second look, would 

 be off in hot pursuit of another insect. 



I wanted to see if she would be afraid of me, 

 and so crept up by the fence, almost under the 

 baby birds. Two of them sat there side by side, 



