1 64 i^ BIRD LAND. 



she would not, and there was no use in talking ; she 

 flitted, half contemptuously, to a more distant bush. 

 That proud cockney need not think she cared for 

 him ! She was n't going to lose her heart to every 

 lovelorn swain who came along. But, mark you, 

 when I tried to separate them, by driving one to 

 one side of the path and the other to the opposite 

 side, the little hypocrite contrived every time, with 

 admirable finesse, to flit over toward her knightly 

 suitor. Three times the experiment brought the 

 same result. Her maidenly reserve had a good deal 

 of calculation in it, after all, innocent as she appeared. 

 Perhaps she had conned Longfellow's wise quatrain : 



" How can I tell the signals and the signs 

 By which one heart another heart divines ? 

 How can I tell the many thousand ways 

 By which it keeps the secret it betrays ? " 



That the course of true love does not always run 

 smooth in the bird world as elsewhere, goes without 

 saying. There are feuds and jealousies. Sometimes 

 two beaux admire the same belle, and then there 

 may be war to the death. I have seen two rival 

 song-sparrows clutch in the air, peck and claw at 

 each other viciously, and come down to the ground 

 with a thud that must have knocked the breath out 

 of them for a few moments. Incredible as it may 

 seem, an acute observer of bird life declares that the 

 females are most likely to quarrel and fight over 

 their lovers. At such times the male stands by, 

 looks on approvingly, and lets them fight it out, no 



