PHASE'S OF BIRD LIFE. 20 7 



of. Occasionally he would leap to the end of his 

 cage, open his mouth wide at " Brownie," whose 

 cage stood next to his, and sing a comic song ; at 

 least, it seemed comic. 



These incidents, although they do not prove that 

 birds have elaborate games, do prove that they pos- 

 sess the play spirit, and no doubt their pastimes and 

 amusements are relished fully as much by them as 

 ours are by us ; perhaps more so. 



VI. 



BIRD DEATHS. 



If only some master dramatist could write the 

 tragedies of bird land ! They would be highly 

 exciting, and would afford ample room for the play 

 of genius; for there are adventures and disasters 

 without number. Perhaps it is on account of the 

 many reverses that there is so often a pensive strain 

 in the songs of the birds, — a minor chord running 

 like a shimmering silver line through the weft of 

 the woodland music. Robert Burns, in his " Address 

 to a Woodlark," touched the very marrow of bird 

 sadness, and pleaded with the little singer to cease 

 its song, or he himself would go distracted, — 



" Say, was thy little mate unkind. 

 And heard thee as the careless wind ? 

 Oh ! nocht but love and sorrow joined 

 Sic notes o' wae could wauken. 



