158 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
“Tf an innocent bird 
Before my heedless footsteps stirred and stirred 
In little journeys.” 
What restless spirit is in this creature, that, 
while so shy in its own personal habits, it yet 
watches every visitor with a Paul Pry curiosity, 
follows him in the woods, peers out among the 
underbrush, scratches upon the leaves with a 
pretty pretence of important business there, 
and presently, when disregarded, ascends some 
small tree and begins to carol its monotonous 
song, as if there were no such thing as man in 
the universe? There is something irregular 
and fantastic in the coloring, also, of the Che- 
wink ; unlike the generality of ground-birds, it 
is a showy thing, with black, white, and bay 
intermingled, and it is one of the most unmis- 
takable of all our feathery creatures, in its as- 
pect and its ways. 
Another of my favorites, perhaps from our 
sympathy as to localities, since we meet freely 
every summer at a favorite lake, is the King- 
bird, or Tyrant Flycatcher. The habits of roy- 
alty or tyranny I have never been able to per- 
ceive, —only a democratic habit of resistance 
to tyrants ; but this bird always impresses me 
as a perfectly well-dressed and well-mannered 
person, who amid a very talkative society pre- 
. fers to listen, and shows his character by action 
