IN THE ESTERO 



"Quite right, my dear, quite right, as you al- 

 ways are." 



And down he drops upon the eggs, while 

 she gads about — to the Browning Club or 

 where not — at her own good pleasure. A pat- 

 tern of a spouse, a model manage, and conjugal 

 felicity without a jar ! For anything I can see, 

 birds are about as well off as their superiors in 

 matters of this delicate and more or less uncer- 

 tain nature. 



I confess, notwithstanding, that the case of 

 the phalaropes is so extremely exceptional (among 

 birds), that, whenever I have been watching a 

 pair side by side in springtime, I have found my- 

 self continually saying " he " of the bigger and 

 brighter one, — an ungallant lapse for which, if I 

 knew how to do it, I would tender her my best 

 apologies. 



It has been no slight gratification to find all 

 three species — the entire family, in short, for 

 there is no fourth one the world over — present 

 twice a year on my Santa Barbara stamping- 

 grounds. 



Wilson's is the largest and to my taste the 

 most attractive of the three, although, where all 

 are so lovely, the very perfection of daintiness 

 and grace, it is perhaps presumptuous to affect a 

 choice. It is strictly an American bird also (which 

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