152 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



sure, "Get out of here, you old Loggerhead, you miserable Butcher 

 bird! you can't have my darlings, get out at once, do you hear?" and 

 as the Shrike sits calmly watching this tirade which he has so uncon- 

 sciously stirred up, Madam Mocker, makes a dive at him and— being 

 too polite to resist a lady, he takes himself and his unwelcome presence 

 out of sight. 



I have also watched a Mockingbird drive two Robins out of the yard, 

 that were much larger than himself. It seemed quite evident that he 

 considered our place his own property, and had appointed himself to 

 police the grounds. 



My affections for the Mockingbird are divided with the smallest 

 and daintiest of our feathered friends, the Hummingbirds, who are 

 also with us throughout the year. Perchance you are sitting with me 

 upon my porch, when suddenly there is a "buzz-z" close to your bead 

 and a green streak darts past you with a "tsp, tsp," and poising over a 

 geranium not three feet away, this dainty bit of feathered sweetness 

 sips the nectar from your flowers, and is away again before you are 

 over your surprise. Raising your opera glass, you watch him as he 

 rests upon a tiny branch near by, his green back shining in the sunlight, 

 the feathers on his head raised into a diminutive crest. 



Listen — he is actually singing, "Teedle, teedle, te, te, te," he sings 

 in a rapid little melody; "Teedle, teedle, teedle, te, te, te" and you are 

 suddenly seized with a childish desire to grab him in your hand and 

 squeeze him out of pure love. He has evidently read your thoughts, 

 for away he goes, and though a bush hides him, you hear his contented 

 little "tsp, tsp." 



Then there is the Black Phoebe who rears her young near by and 

 brings them daily to our yard to feed. Truly this yard must be full of 

 marvelously good things, if one is to judge by the number of birds seen 

 daily from the porch. 



Madam Brown Towhee, followed by her hungry twins, parades be- 

 fore this reviewing stand and gladly eats the crumbs thrown to her. 



The saucy Linnet, or House Finch, the rose-crimson trimmings of 

 his brown coat making him very attractive, goes so far as to build on 

 that same reviewing stand, the porch; while in the pepper tree across 

 the road, that Prince among birds, the Phainopepla or Black Flycatch- 

 er gathers the red berries for his supper. Sometimes his ash colored 

 mate accompanies him, but you must look quickly if you would ob- 

 serve them for they are shy birds and their stay will be short. 



