116 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
meant, ‘‘May-flies immediately!” This was too 
much for Mr. Prothonotary. With a farewell look 
at the Banker, he turned his back and dived into the 
nest, placing himself entirely at the mercy of this 
giant who was keeping guard over his home. Seven 
times he did this while we watched, bringing in two 
beetles, a small wasp, a fly, and three May-flies. 
The hen-bird would come up time and time again 
with a fly in her beak, but never could quite muster 
up courage enough to go into the nest, but absent- 
mindedly swallowing the fly herself, would go off. 
We had a wonderful chance to study the coloring 
of this rare bird. The cock-bird had a bright black 
eye which showed vividly against his yellow cheek, 
as did his long black bill. His colors were gray, 
yellow, and olive. The underside of his tail was pure 
white, and he had a white edge to his wings, while 
the top of the wings was greenish-yellow. The whole 
head, throat, and breast were of an intense golden, 
almost orange yellow, and the wings were bluish-gray. 
The bird itself was just about the size of the common 
black-and-white warbler. The female was of the same 
coloring, only much paler. 
After that came the tragedy of the day for me. 
An overhanging bough knocked off my glasses, and 
they sank in the black waters of the marsh and con- 
tinued sunk, in spite of my frantic groping and diving 
for them. The rest of the day I realized how the 
blinded galley-slaves felt who were chained to the 
oar in medieval times. The Banker kindly described 
to me all the sixty-five different kinds of birds he 
