104 A QUEER LITTLE TALK. 



quiet themselves again. The male readily did 

 so, but she remained on the lower perch. I 

 went close to the wires and began to speak 

 soothingly, to calm her, and induce her to 

 resume her place, when, to my surprise, she 

 began to reply to me, every time I spoke, stand- 

 ing less than a foot from me. She stared me 

 full in the face, not at all disturbed, and 

 answered every word I said with her musical 

 call, in a low tone, as if to tell me the story of 

 the fright. We kept up the queer little chat 

 for several minutes, and she did not return to 

 his side that night. 



One advantage of studying two birds of a 

 kind at the same time is to observe the talk 

 between them, which has great interest for me. 

 This pair were exceedingly talkative at first, 

 uttering not only the usual musical three-syl- 

 lable warble or call, which Lanier aptly calls 

 the " heavenly word," but often soft twittering 

 prattle, of varying inflection and irregular 

 length, which was certainly the most interest- 

 ing bird-talk I ever heard. When they could 

 not see me they indulged in it more freely, 

 with changing tones at different times, and 

 after they became accustomed to the room and 

 its inhabitants it was neither so frequent nor so 

 earnest. Often at night, when one — perhaps 

 in a dream — fell off the perch, I heard much 



