36 TN HIS DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 



Nothing would have been easier, or more 



delightful, than to pitch one's tent in a certain 



pine grove not far away, and pass days and 



weeks in forgetting the world of cares, and 



reading favorite books, lulled at all hours of 



day and night by the softened roar of the 



ocean and the wonderful bird 



" Singing the song of everything, 

 Consnmmate sweet, and calm." 



But it was not merely as singer that I wished 

 to know him ; nor to watch his dainty and 

 graceful ways as. he went about the daily duties 

 of food -hunting, singing, and driving off ma- 

 rauders, which occupied his hours from dawn 

 to late evening, and left him spirit enough for 

 many a midnight rhapsody. It was in his 

 domestic relations that I desired to see him, — 

 the wooing of the bride and building the nest, 

 the training of mocking-bird babies and start- 

 ing them in the world; and no loitering and 

 dreaming in the pine grove, however tempting, 

 would tell me this. I must follow him to his 

 more secluded retreats, see where he had set 

 up his homestead. 



Thoreau — or is it Emerson ? — says one al- 

 ways finds what he looks for, and of course I 

 found my nests. One pair of birds I noticed 

 through the courtship, the selection of the site, 

 the building and occupying of the nest; an- 



