An August Night 



And so the awning slides are repeated 

 perhaps a half-a-dozen times, and 

 may be two or three other foragers 

 will join in the hunt for frapped flies. 

 And now the birds have found that 

 when the top of the awning has been 

 cleared they can come in underneath 

 and work the screens. The French 

 windows are thrown back inside the 

 room, so the sport is now clearly to be 

 seen. This morning after the night 

 of the great full moon, with a reference 

 to which this discursive narrative be- 

 gan, two of the birds alighted squarely 

 on the perpendicular surface of the 

 wire netting, gripping the mesh with 

 their needle-pointed claws, and stood 

 there side by side peering curiously 

 and cautiously inside. To me they 

 are silly-looking and queer-acting 

 creatures at best, and their clinging 

 to and climbing up a window screen 

 is about as clumsy and ridiculous a 

 stunt as I have seen in bird-land. 

 There, side by side, the long-billed 



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