20 
BECOMES QUAP.RELSOME, 
to perform her maternal duties alone, and betook himself, 
in all the freedom of bachelorhood, to roaming Avherever 
his fancy pleased. Up and down through the green alleys 
and leafy avenues he flew and strutted ; he crouched 
awhile amid the fern stalks under the spreading fronds, 
and stooped to bathe in and drink of the brook which 
lapsed away, with gurgle like a lullaby, beneath the 
shadow of the stunted thorns and alders just without the 
wood, deep within whose bosom was 
The mossy fount which no snn sees, 
Girdled in by leafy trees, 
that supplied the crystal current of its peaceful existence. 
He scorned alike the company of the chattering jay and 
the cooing dove, and rested not by the tall elms where 
the rooks held noisy council, because he loved quiet and soli- 
tude, rarely associating even with his own kinsfolk. In spots 
seldom disturbed by a -passing footstep might he be seen, 
basking in the sunshine, with his gorgeous plumes out- 
spread ; the whirr of his wings breaks the silence, ever and 
anon ; but seldom except at pairing time do you hear his 
husky crow ; then, indeed, as William Hewitt says, when 
The jay's red breast 
Peeps over its nest, 
In the midst of the crab blossoms blushing, 
And the call of the pheasant 
Is frequent and pleasant, 
When all other calls are hushing— 
Then he becomes a bold, noisy, quarrelsome fellow ; no 
longer shy and retiring, but confident and obtrusive, he 
struts and crows in the open glade, sending forth his love 
calls and invitations, and defying any rival who might be 
inclined to intrude Avithin the space of which he has for 
the time constituted himself lord and master. But the 
proud look and bearing, which seem to say, * I am monarch 
of all I survey ! ' is soon changed for the skulking and 
timorous aspect, and the hidling, cautious habits which 
generally characterize the bird. Yet for all that, as we 
said before, what a glorious bird it is ! and how well the 
rich tints of its plumage harmonize with those of the 
autumnal woodlands ! And this reminds us of a beautiful 
