the beloved until she drops with fatigue seems
to be the blackbird idea of a tender attention, and possibly the pursuit
of his spouse already spoken of may have been of this sort, merely a
loverly demonstration. But with the babies it was a different thing.
Heretofore I had seen blackbird fathers devoted attendants on their
young, working as hard as the mothers in seeking supplies, and following
up the wandering brood to administer them. But this bird, I observed,
was avoided by the little folk. When he showed inclination to join the
family party on one of its excursions, they shied away from him, and if
he came too near they uttered a sort of husky "huff," like the familiar
protest of a cat. With the same sound they greeted him and moved away
when he approached a bush where they sat. Perhaps this crustiness of
demeanor was the natural result of his long weeks of anxiety and trouble
as protector during their helpless infancy; perhaps he was tired out and
exhausted, and it was not irritability, but nervous prostration, that
made him appear so unamiable. Indeed, I do not see how it could be
otherwise, after his exciting life. And may that not explain the fact
that when the young are grown, the singer shakes off all family ties and
joins a flock of his comrades, while mother and young remain together?
Since he insists on taking his family responsibilities so hard, he
cannot be blamed for desiring a rest for part of the year.

[Sidenote: _A PANIC ON THE MARSH._]

Now that the nest was deserted and the young were always going about
with their mother, I wondered that the head of the family did not relax
his vigilance over the meadow and abandon his two watch-towers; but save
that his enticing song came up to me oftener than his cries of distress,
his habits were not materially altered. One day, when I thought his
summer troubles ought surely to be over, a fresh anxiety came to him.
Several women and girls, with a dog, appeared on the marsh, which at low
tide was in some parts explorable. The human members of the party amused
themselves with bathing and wading in the now shallow stream; but the
dog acted like one gone mad, dashing about on those peaceful flats where
so many birds were enjoying themselves quietly, rushing full gallop from
one group to another, wading or swimming the winding stream every time
he came to it, and barking at the top of his voice every instant. Birds
rose before him in flocks, sandpipers took to the