12 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



gold and green feathers. The swallows 

 are skimming over the meadow, and 

 yesterday a belted kingfisher sat high 

 in a dead maple by the river, with a 

 flock of jays screaming and quarrelling 

 near him. The snowbirds, buntings, 

 nuthatches, and kinglets have passed 

 to the north, as well as most of the owl 

 tribe ; but the little screech-owl remains 

 to blink in the summer woods. Yonder 

 black cloud, settling on the great chest- 

 nut, is an army of purple grackles, our 

 crow blackbirds, and their glossy kin 

 with the scarlet shoulders, whose cry 

 is a shrill " Quank-a-ree, " is the red- 

 winged swamp blackbird. 



Far down the meadow, where the 

 grass is coarse and sedgy, and dry 

 tussocks offer a shelter, the meadow 

 lark is weaving its nest, working so 

 deftly that its home is practically safe 

 from human invaders. See him there, 



