THE BIRDS’ WATCHMEN 263 
features, he suddenly starts aloft with a loud cry, 
then holding his wings stiffly above his back and 
letting his legs dangle brokenly, he sinks down¬ 
ward with a zigzag jerking motion, as though 
hauled back into the shrubbery by an invisible 
force. Perhaps he thinks thus to ward away his 
enemies! If he does, it is certainly mistaken 
energy; for the dullest observer can but be at¬ 
tracted by his queer antics. Let one come within 
a quarter of a mile of his precincts, and he sets 
up a worried protest, screaming vainly that his 
nest is somewhere in the copse, and that you 
mustn’t look for it, much less touch it. Poor lit¬ 
tle ninny! His very lack of discretion is his un¬ 
doing. 
“ Nor is he any^ wiser after nightfall. Like the 
mocking-bird and the rose-breasted grosbeak, he 
is fond of twittering away to himself in the moon¬ 
light. The yellow mocking-bird, some people call 
him, but he does not belong to the mocker family, 
which includes simply the mocking-bird, catbird, 
and brown thrasher. He is a warbler. The red¬ 
start, the ovenbird, and the summer yellowbird or 
wild canary are the best known of his interesting 
kindred, who are for the most part delightful bits 
of feather, smaller than the English sparrow, and 
garbed in coats of olive, blue, and black, deeply 
marked and splotched with white and shades of 
yellow. All of the family are fond of the deep 
