Exhausting
work this aerial flirtation. The bride alights among the red knobs
of the umbrella-tree for refreshment. Her wings quiver as she sips,
while her admirer poises a yard in the air above her, flashes hither
and thither, briefly steadying his flight in positions whence all
his loveliness may be advantageously revealed; poises again a yard
above her; gyrates with the air of a dandy of over-weening assurance,
vanity, and pride; swoops until his wings in their down-strokes salute
her; and then the dainty pair dance into the sunless mazes of the
jungle.
It is all a vivid but soundless symphony--a concord of tender harmonies
and sprightly trills and passionate phrases.
THE GREED OF THE SNAKE
In another place in these artless chronicles proof has been given of the
fact that though serpents were long enough ago declared to be the most
subtle of the beasts of the field, they may be imposed upon. I would
like now to cite an instance of their greed and their grasping nature.
Our chicken coops were made snake-proof, but a more than ordinarily,
crafty individual burglariously broke into one, and the hen and chickens
sounded the alarm. It was night, and the lantern revealed the snake.
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