Music of the Wild 



There is Aery little art in their nests, but their 

 eggs are ])eautifully decorated. The young are 

 colored siniihn- to their elders, the families large 

 and so cunning as to be irresistible. Xo bird is 

 more useful in an orchard, unless, indeed, it be a 

 cuckoo, which is of great value because it eats cat- 

 erpillars. In protecting an orchard from jays, 

 ha\\ks, and crows, such a pair of fighters saves you 

 dozens of more gentle timid birds that carry worms 

 and bugs by the million from fruit trees. In con- 

 sideration of this you should acknowledge their 

 royalty and offer them every encouragement to 

 reign over your 25remises. 



As we regard harmony, the kingbird is the least 

 musical resident of the orchard. Tilting on a 

 Titled lookout from the top of the tree in which his nest 

 Musicians j^. p]aced, he uses what to me sounds like, "Ka-tic, 

 a-tic, a-tic," for a tribal call and means of com- 

 munication between pairs. His sustained song, if 

 song it may be called, aj^peals to me as "Ka-tic, 

 a-tic, querr, kerrr, kerrr!" but it is not composed 

 of either mellow or musical tones, and is at all 

 times inflected as if it -were a continued call of de- 

 fiance; so that the good folk who attribute to him 

 a "sweet musical song, softly Marbled," are the 

 veriest romancers. 



The picture here given shows a nest nearly fif- 

 teen feet high in one of tliese old orchards, around 

 which I worked until the story of what I did with 



262 



