Song Birds and Water Fowl 



gulls are, thus to break away from all their fel- 

 lows, and live in such seclusion ; and I rather 

 admire the spirit of any biped, feathered or not, 

 that does not follow the crowd, nor tie up to 

 another's faith, but has his distinct taste, which 

 he is not afraid to express and live up to. 



Sitting on the piazza one morning, a pair of 

 cedar-birds flew by several times, at short inter- 

 vals, in a very eager and suspicious manner. It 

 must be king's business, I thought, to require 

 such haste. I noticed that they kept flying into 

 an apple-tree in the yard ; and, knowing their 

 uppermost thought at this particular season — 

 early in July — I was not surprised to find that 

 they were very busy over a long string that was 

 caught in the branches. It was so entangled 

 in the twigs that it looked at first like the 

 foundation of a nest ; yet, without pretending 

 to understand the fine points of nest architect- 

 ure, I should have known that this was no suit- 

 able spot for the cedar bird to build in. The 

 next morning one of the birds came again, and 

 labored long and frantically over that string, 

 at last taking hold of the very end and giving 

 it a strong pull, and a final vicious twitch, 

 and then darting away. I was now in doubt 

 whether they were trying to wind it about the 



