IN FULL DRESS. 25 



ents'. No speckled bib, like the bluebird or 

 robin infant's, defaces the snowy breast; no 

 ugly gray coat, like the redwing baby's, obscures 

 the beauty of the little kingbird's attire. He 

 enters society in full dress. 



But each day, now, the trio grew in size, in 

 repose of manner, and in strength of voice ; and 

 before long they sat up hours at a time, patient, 

 silent, and ludicrously resembling the 



u Three wise men of Gotham 

 Who went to sea in a bowl." 



In spite of their grown-up looks and manners, 

 they did not lose their appetite ; and from break- 

 fast, at the unnatural hour of half past four in 

 the morning, till a late supper, when so dark 

 that I could see only the movement of feeding 

 like a silhouette against the white clouds, all 

 through the day, food came to the nest every two 

 minutes or less. Think of the work of those 

 two birds! Every mouthful brought during 

 those fifteen and a half hours required a separate 

 hunt. They usually flew out to a strip of low 

 land, where the grass was thick and high. Over 

 this they hovered with beautiful motion, and 

 occasionally dropped an instant into the grass. 

 The capture made, they started at once for the 

 nest, resting scarcely a moment. There were 

 thus between three and four hundred trips a 

 day, and of course that number of insects were 



