111

Concord, Mass.
1916

Its physical manifestation could not have been mistaken
for anything else - albeit for the most part decorously
restrained and never so much as remotely suggestive of
sexual passion or desire. Sometimes the big and the
little bird contented themselves with merely cuddling
close together; oftener there was frequent interchange
of gentle fondling by bill or cheek touched lightly
or rubbed softly against a corresponding part or
perhaps elsewhere. The Guinea-hen repeatedly
thrust out his long neck over his speckled back and
thence beneath one of his folded wings until his
head appeared just beyond it - a grotesque attention
which seemed to give both birds especial pleasure
and satisfaction. That all these demonstrations together
with the vocal sounds accompanying them, must be