Mbere tbe /lDocftfnQ*l)ir& Sings 



calmly making notes. The men of science, 

 those excellent fellows who firmly believe 

 that the truths of nature cannot be told with 

 a view to Hterature in the telling, had been 

 treating my dropping-song story to baths of 

 dust in the waste-baskets of their garrets 

 in order to give more glory to the special- 

 ists who study bird-song in college mu- 

 seums, and so I wanted to make a 

 " scientific report " of what was now going 

 on before me. 



After the first long trill the bird ex- 

 tended its wings to almost their full length, 

 lifting them somewhat above the level of 

 its back, where they quivered with a deli- 

 cate rapidity that made them shimmer in 

 the sunlight. It now began to give forth 

 phrase after phrase of quavering melody, 

 which deepened in power momentarily, 

 until, with a marvelous staccato cry, the 

 singer vaulted into the air and whirled over 

 backward, to flutter down through the fo- 

 liage to a point in the tree-top some three 

 feet below where he had begun. There 

 it fell rather than lighted, and lolled half 

 helplessly among the leaves, but pouring 

 89 



