Wood Duck 
Hummingbird 
swooping 
over its 
mate 
Yellow- 
winged 
Sparrow 
accompanied the sound were much less energetic and pronounced 
than those which I have observed on former occasions. The 
position when at rest was about this. ^ I could 
not see the beast distinctly. 
U s 1 hoisted my sail to leave the spot after having 
seen the Bittern pump three times, a Wood Duck evidently 
alarmed by the white sail, uttered a succession of o- clas 
in the bushes near me but did not fly.i 
Early this morning I saw a pair of Hummingbirds in 
our blossoming cherry tree. After they had fed awhile 
among the flowers, the female alighted in an apple tree 
when the male, rising to about 20 feet above her, began 
darting down over her^back and forth, turning short about 
in the air at the end of each swoop,which resembled the 
swing of a pendulum only the curve wasjmuch deeper, thus: 
V'iT * * 
> “^7 
*5-an 
The male while thus engaged kept up an incessant shrill 
chirping. He did not touch or very closely approach the 
female and finally flew away. 
jThe Yellow-winged Sparrow is quite as crepuscular 
a songster as the Henslow* s and Savanna Sparrows. I heard 
one this evening when the last Robin was singing his last 
notes and all the other birds had ceased, and was struck 
for the first time by the frying quality of the song — like 
slowly sizzling fat. 
