106 



THE OOLOGIST 



which I very gladly did. A short time 

 after I joined them it began to grow 

 cold so we all decided to leave our 

 present abiding places and go in search 

 of a warmer clime. We traveled many 

 days in a southerly direction, over 

 broad rivers, green fields and large for- 

 ests, until we at length arrived in a 

 beautiful country of large orange 

 groves where the air was ever warm 

 and pleasant. As there was a great 

 variety of food here, we decided to re- 

 main for an indefinite period. At this 

 time I had a dispute with one of the 

 sons of Mr. Spizella socialis and as the 

 whole family took sides with him I de- 

 cided to leave them. 



After I left their company I wander- 

 ed, around, meeting many of my rela- 

 tives, but was not content to abide long 

 with any of them until I met a gentle- 

 man who bore the same name that I 

 did and who informed me that he was 

 my uncle. He was very glad to see me 

 and invited me to join his family, which 

 consisted of his wife, one son and two 

 daughters. His daughters were very 

 beautiful, the younger one especially, 

 and I immediately fell in love with her. 

 The days passed very pleasantly now 

 and very rapidly also. 



I had but one serious adventure, of 

 which time I narrowly escaped being 

 caught and devoured by a cat. The 

 time was now approaching when I felt 

 inclined to return to|my old home, and 

 as I disliked to travel alone, I asked 

 and received permission of my uncle to 

 take his youngest daughter with me. 



We were duly married, and after re- 

 ceiving some good advice from t he old 

 folks, set out upon our journey. I 

 was so happy I could not refrain from 

 singing nearly all the time, and my 

 wife was good enough to tell me 

 that I sang very well, almost as well, 

 in fact as her father. This made me 

 feel quite flattered; for her father was a 

 vocalist of repute. After traveling 

 leisurely northward for a time we came 



to a beautiful valley which was covered 

 with fruit trees, at this time in full 

 bloom, and their fragrant and beautiful 

 blossoms made one think of Paradise. 

 I was told that one of these orchards 

 was owned by a friend of the birds, 

 called an Ornithologist, so we travelled 

 until we found it In this orchard 

 many birds were nesting, and as they 

 told me he never allowed their nests to 

 be disturbed, we decided to remain here 

 and build our summer home. The on- 

 ly difiiculty was that there were no 

 bunches of grass growing in the orchard 

 and the traditions of our family tell us 

 that we should always build our nest 

 on the ground under a bunch of grass 

 or weed. 



However, we decided at last to build 

 in the first forks of a large prune tree 

 about one foot and a half above the 

 ground, and so began building our 

 home on the 16th of April, 1899, of 

 twigs, straw and rootlets. The inter- 

 ior we lined with soft fine grass and 

 hair. By working hard we had our 

 nest I'eady for the eggs nine days after 

 we started it, and five days later found 

 my mate sitting upon five beautiful 

 eggs, four of which were hatched twelve 

 days later, or upon the 8th of May. 

 My happiness was then complete, but 

 it was soon to be turned to sorrow, for 

 when our babies were but two days old 

 two terrible dogs tore down our home 

 and devoured them, although we tried 

 in every manner possible to prevent 

 them from doing so. 



After we had somewhat recovered 

 from the shock occasioned by this ter- 

 rible loss we decided to build again, 

 this time selecting a fork in a prune 

 tree two and one-half feet up, in which 

 we ^built our nest and which in due 

 time held three eggs, they being hatch- 

 ed upon the 5th day of June. We 

 thought we had placed our home high 

 enough up in the tree to be secure, but 

 in this we were mistaken, for upon the 

 8th of June, our home was destroyed 



