y them off to hide
about the room.

The blue-jay took his bath in an original way as he did everything else.
First, he stood beside the wide, shallow dish, looked at it, then at me
and all around the room, one wing drooping and the other laid jauntily
over the back, while he talked in a low tone, as if he said, "If anybody
is going to object, now is the time." No one ventured to dispute his
right, and suddenly he plumped into the middle, neither alighting on the
edge nor testing the water. Then there was a lively frolic, with tail
spread, crest raised, wings beating, and the water flying several feet
around. He was a very beautiful bird when in perfect-plumage. There were
six distinct shades of blue, besides rich velvety black, snowy white,
delicate dove color, and blue-gray. He is too well known to need
description, but a jay is not often so closely seen when alive and in
perfection of plumage. This bird had a charming way of folding his wings
that hid all the plain blue-gray. When held thus and laid together over
the back, there were displayed first the beautiful tail, with broad
white edges to the feathers; above it the wings looking like a square
cut mantle, of the same colors; above this a deep pointed shoulder cape,
of rich violet blue, the feathers fluffed up loosely; and at the top of
all, his exquisite crest.

VIRGINIA'S WOOING.

For who the pleasure of the spring shall tell,
When on the leafless stalk the brown buds swell,
When the grass brightens and the days grow long,
And little birds break out in rippling song.

CELIA THAXTER.

XII.

VIRGINIA'S WOOING.

You must know in the beginning that Virginia wore feathers. But she had
as many trials with her suitors as though she dressed in silks, and she
displayed so much of what we call "human nature" that her story is as
interesting as that of half the Ethels and Marguerites of the romances.

She came of a good old family, the Cardinals, and, belonging to the
Virginia branch, was called properly Virginia Cardinal, or, in
scientific, fashion, _Cardinalis Virginianus_. She was a beauty, too. It
is well known that the cardinal himself has a full suit of the most
brilliant red, but it is not so familiar a fact that the dames of the
tribe are more modest and wear the family colors simply as linings and
in subdued tints: rich rose-colored wing-facings, light coral-hued beak,
delicate pink crest, all toned down by the soft oli