THE CHATS VOCABULARY. 237 



custom, proceeded with equal promptness to 

 follow the bird up, to hunt him out. She 

 slipped between the barbed wires which, quite 

 unnecessarily, one would suppose, defended the 

 bleak pasture from outside encroachment, and 

 passed out of sight down an obscure path that 

 led into the brush where the bird was hidden. 

 Though our ways differ, or rather, perhaps, be- 

 cause our ways differ, we are able to study in 

 company. Certainly this circumstance proved 

 available in circumventing the wily chat, and 

 that happened which had happened before : in 

 fleeing from one who made herself obvious to 

 him, he presented himself, an unsuspecting vic- 

 tim, to another who sat like a statue against the 

 wall. To avoid his pursuer, the bird slipped 

 through the thick foliage of the low oaks, and 

 took his place on the outside, in full view of me, 

 but looking through the branches at the move- 

 ments within so intently that he never turned 

 his eyes toward me. This gave me an opportu- 

 nity to study his manners that is rare indeed, 

 for a chat off his guard is something incon- 

 ceivable. 



He shouted out his whole repertoire (or so it 

 seemed) with great vehemence, now " peeping " 

 like a bird in the nest, then " chacking " like a 

 blackbird, mewing as neatly as pussy herself, 

 and varying these calls by the rattling of cas- 



