he road, were the
straight trails of gopher snakes, and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake
we had been just too late to meet.

At our next session with the blue-grays, when she was on the nest, her
mate came back to relieve her and cried in his quick cheerful way, "Here
I am, here I am!" Either she was taking a nap or didn't want to stir,
for she didn't budge till he called insistently, "_Here_ I am, _here_ I
am!" Then he hopped down in her place, and raising his head above the
nest, remarked again, as if commenting upon the new situation, "Here I
am!"

It was quite a different matter when she came back to work. She only
called "hello," not even hinting that he should make way for her, but he
hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying away promptly to
another tree and calling back like a gleeful boy let out of school,
"Here I am!"

She was no more eager to go to the nest than he, however, and once when
she came flirting leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a long
time on the edge of the nest and leaned over, presumably to arrange the
eggs; perhaps she and her mate had different views as to their proper
positions. The next time I visited the gnats, she acted as if she really
could not make up her mind to settle down to brooding on such a
beautiful morning. The fog had cleared away and the air was fresh and
full of life; goldfinches and lazuli buntings were singing merrily, and
light-hearted vireos were shouting _chick-a-de-chick'-de-villet'_ from
the brush. How much pleasanter it would be for such an airy fairy to go
off for a race with her mate than to settle down demurely tucked into a
cup! "Tsang," she cried impatiently as she flew up to catch a fly. She
flirted about the branches, whipped up in front of the nest, couldn't
make up her mind to go in, and flounced off again. But the eggs would
get cold if she didn't cover them, so back she came, hopped up on the
edge of the nest, and stood twisting and turning, glancing this way and
that as though for a fly to chase, till she happened to look down at the
eggs; then she whipped her tail, dropped in and--jumped out again!

During the morning when she was away and her mate was waiting for her to
come back to 'spell' him, he too got impatient. He hopped out of the
nest crying, "Now here I am, quick, come quick!" and as he flew off,
sang out in his funny little soliloquizing way, "Well, here I go; here I
go!"

His restless spouse had only just settled