1906
May 18
(No 3)
  Yesterday morning I saw three King Birds together
near the little pond in our Berry pasture. They were
behaving very oddly. Alighting on some leafy horizontal
branch facing one another and only a few feet apart
they would crouch and quiver their wings and bow their
heads low at the same time uttering their shrill
metallic cries incessantly. Finally one would fly to
another tree & its two companions would immediately
follow where the bowing & scraping would be continued.
This was kept up at intervals for ten or fifteen
minutes. There were two birds in the same place
late this afternoon going through precisely the
same performance. It looked like courtship but I
cannot understand how two males would be courting
the same female without fighting. However the third
bird behaved exactly like the other two yesterday &
the two to-day acted just alike.
  The Toads have nearly or quite ceased trilling
but the Hylas peep every night as noisily and almost
as monotonously as ever. Visiting our little pond last
evening I was surprised to find that many Hylas were
 peeping on dry land well back in the bushes.
The Toads took to the water to-night for the
first time and their clamor, coming from one pond,
was almost deafening through the sultry evening & far
into the night. (I assumed that they were in the
water because their notes came from the pond but
on the next evening (May 19) I visited the place &
found that all these on this occasion were in the
bushes near the pond & not actually in the water)