AMONG THE BIRDS IN SPRING. 23 



nests to the walls and beams and eaves, forming 

 first a cup or shell of mud, which is warmly lined 

 with hair and grass and feathers. These birds 

 may often be seen in chase of seme feather or 

 straw which has been blown into the air ; and 

 during the hot, dry seasons, especially, it is 

 surprising how far they will travel to get mud 

 moist enough for building purposes. We have 

 known House Martins fly nearly a mile to heaps House Mar- 



J J x tins have 



of mortar, when the ponds, where they usually gj* 2 s th 

 obtained their material, have been dried up by 

 long-continued drought. How interesting and 

 charming it is to watch the various ways of birds, 

 and to chronicle the endless instances of their 

 thought and intelligence ! To us it is one of 

 the greatest sources of our pleasure to discover 

 such evidences of the presence of animal intelli- 

 gence of the little mind so busily at work in 

 such tiny creatures, whose mental attributes more 

 closely resemble our own than the past race of 

 philosophers ever dared to dream. The Spotted 

 Flycatchers may be observed in their old haunts, 

 sitting on the bare branches and old stumps, 

 from which they ever and anon sally out into 

 the air to catch passing insects. This little bird, 

 when insect life is not much on the move, 

 sometimes flutters down among the grass and 

 weeds to disturo the flies, and then catches them 

 as they rise into the air. It may be known 

 by its oft-repeated notes of chee-tic, chee-tic-tic-tic. W! inchats 

 The pretty Whinchats sit upon the tall hemlock M y a g> 3 th 



