LOVE OR WAR? 41 



of old-fashioned human dancers that when, on 

 one occasion, number two varied the perform- 

 ance by a spring over the head of his partner, 

 I was startled, as if an old gentleman had sud- 

 denly hopped over the head of the grand dame 

 his vis-d-vis. When this strange new figure 

 was introduced, number one proved equal to 

 the emergency, hopping backward, and turning 

 so dexterously that when his partner alighted 

 they were facing, and about a foot apart, as 

 before. The object of all this was very uncer- 

 tain to a looker-on. It might be the approaches 

 of love, and quite as probably the wary be- 

 ginnings of war, and the next feature of the 

 programme was not explanatory ; they rose to- 

 gether in the air ten feet or more, face to face, 

 fluttering and snatching at each other, appar- 

 ently trying to clinch ; succeeding in doing so, 

 they fell to the ground, separated just before 

 they touched it, and flew away. O wings! 

 most maddening to a bird-student. 



It was not very long after these performances, 

 which seem to me to belong to the courtship 

 period, when I noticed that my bird had won 

 his bride, and they were busy house-hunting. 

 The place they apparently preferred, and at 

 last fixed upon, was at an unusual height 

 for mocking-birds, near the top of one of the 

 tall pines, and I was no less surprised than 



