BIRD PARADISE 103 



seek it. A little later in the season, however, 

 they balance the books completely, scarcely doing 

 anything else but eat. 



The dwellers on my small domain show many 

 traits of character that seem closely allied with 

 those of human nature. Each species of birds 

 conducts its affairs as though the title to the 

 entire lawn and garden was vested in that single 

 species. Of course such a condition is sure to 

 provoke somebody and that somebody is sure 

 to resent all such provoking. The battle spirit, 

 I notice, is fanned into a brighter flame just after 

 the young birds have left the nest. This morn- 

 ing a mother robin was putting forth large effort 

 to secure a miller that had strayed upon the 

 lawn. Catching insects on the wing is not robin's 

 forte and yet he acts sometimes as though he was 

 not at all conscious of the fact. After quite a 

 little time of strenuous effort he managed to 

 secure the prize. While he was busy I noticed 

 an English sparrow equally busy in watching 

 him. Hardly had the first motion in the way of 

 dissecting the creature been made ere the spar- 

 row by a sudden movement snatched the prize 

 and darted away with it. Bobin was too much 



