NATURE STUDY. 
PUBLISHED UNDER THK AUSPICES OF THE 
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 
You. II. . December, 1901. No. 7. 
An Acrobatic Phoebe. 
BY WIEEIAM H. HUSE. 
It was an original little phoebe that set up housekeeping 
one day in spring. Whether all of the originality be¬ 
longed to her or not neither history nor tradition tells. 
Her mate might also have been eccentric ; but of that we 
are ignorant. Were the nuptials of a new and original 
style that set the feathered gossips agog with curiosity and 
noisy with tattling ? Concerning this the society columns 
are all silent. This much is known—that Madame Phcebe 
would have her house in a romantic place. Perhaps this 
was all there was to it—she was a trifle romantic ; but then 
romance is originality with most people, in their own feath¬ 
ers or borrowed—I mean stolen. 
Madame was attached to the place and would have her 
own way. This last is another sign of originality. It is 
possible that there were no ordinarily suitable places in 
this particular yard where a nest could be built and be safe 
from cats. Of this we have no information. She has nev¬ 
er told. This only is known, that she had become charmed 
with a clothesline that swung to and fro in the breeze and 
had almost lulled her to sleep as she perched upon it and 
dreamed day dreams of the time when she would brood her 
