BIRD MYSTERIES. 245 



summer air rang with sweetest song, and the 

 graceful wavelike flight charmed us from morn- 

 ing till night. The courtship of the bird of July 

 is a beautiful sight. He is at all times pecu- 

 liarly joyous, but at this season his little body 

 seems hardly able to contain him ; so great is his 

 rapture, indeed, that it infects and inspires the 

 most matter-of-fact student. Our bird -loving 

 poet Celia Thaxter must have seen him in loverly 

 mood when she thus addressed him : 



" Where do you hide such a store of delight, 



O delicate creature, tiny and slender, 

 Like a mellow morning- sunbeam bright, 

 Overflowing with music tender ? " 



At all hours of these enchanted days, whether 

 fair or foul, the winsome little fellows were fly- 

 ing hither and thither, singing and calling in 

 ecstatic tones, bounding through the air, and 

 hardly pausing long enough to eat. July was 

 fast slipping away when the excitement deep- 

 ened and matters grew more serious. Then the 

 observer, if he were wary, might catch occa- 

 sional glimpses of puzzling scenes, mysteries of 

 bird life that could not be unraveled because he 

 did not see the whole. 



At one time the student came upon a scene 

 like this: Two or three of the little dames in 

 olive and gold hopping about on an evergreen 

 tree, ostensibly eating, calling, in their enticing 



