HE REDWING WAS FRANTIC._]

The troubles of this Martha-like character began when mowers brought
their clattering machine, and with rasping noise and confusion dire laid
low the grass which had isolated him from the rest of the world, and
that impertinent world poured in. First came crows, from their homes in
the woods beyond the pasture, to feast on the numerous hoppers and
crawlers left roofless by the mowers, and to procure food for their
hungry young, and alighted in the stubble, two or three or half a dozen
at a time. By this the soul of the redwing was fired, and with savage
war-cries he descended upon them. His manner was to fly laboriously to a
great height, and then swoop down at a crow as if to annihilate him. The
bird on the ground turned from his insect hunt long enough to snap at
his threatening enemy, and then returned to his serious business. So
long as the crows stayed the redwing was frantic, his cries filled the
air; and as they were almost constantly there, he was kept on the
borders of frenzy most of the time.

After the crows came the bird-students, with opera-glasses and spying
ways. These also the irascible redwing decided to be foes, flying about
their heads threateningly, and never ceasing his doleful cries so long
as they were in sight. I hoped his brown-streaked mate down in the marsh
knew what a fussy and suspicious personage she had married, and would
not be made anxious by his extravagances; but she too distrusted the
bird gazers, adding her protests to his, and such an outpouring of
"chacks" and other blackbird maledictions one--happily--is not often
called upon to encounter.

After the bird-students the haymakers; and every time a man or a horse
appeared in that field, the blackbird was thrown into utter despair, and
the air rang with his lamentations.

He was evidently a character, a bird of individuality, and I was anxious
to know him better; so, although I hated to grieve him, I resolved to
go somewhat nearer, hoping that he would appreciate my harmlessness and
soon see that he had nothing to fear from me. Not he! Having taken it
into his obstinate little head that all who approached the sacred spot
he guarded were on mischief bent, he refused to discriminate. The moment
I approached the gate, the whole width of the meadow from him, he
greeted me with shouts and cries, and did not cease for an instant,
though I stayed two hours or more. I always went as modestly and
inoffensively as