Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/189

 jBlote^ from JTteld anti ^tudp A Talking Rose-breasted Grosbeak Early last summer while standing on my back steps, I heard a cheerful voice say, "You're a pretty bird. Where are you?" I supposed it to be the voice of a Parrot, but wondered how any Parrot could talk loud enough to be heard at that distance, for the houses on the street back of us are quite a way off. Almost before I had done laughing, the voice came again, clear, musical, and strong — "You're a pretty bird. Where are you?" For several days I endured the suspense of waiting for time to investigate. Then I chased him up. There he was in the top of a walnut tree, his gorgeous attire telling me immediately that he was a Rose- breasted Grosbeak. At the end of a week he varied his com- pliment to, "Pretty, pretty bird, where are you ? Where are you? " With a kind of impatient jerk on the last "you." He and his mate stayed near us all last summer, and though I heard him talk a hundred times, yet he always brought a feeling of gladness and a laugh. Our friend has come back again this spring. About May i, I heard the same endearing compliment as before. Several of my friends whom I have told about him have asked, "Does he say thg words plainly? Do you mean that he really talks?" My reply is, "He says them just as plainly as a bird ever says anything, so plainly, that even now I laugh whenever I hear him." He is not very easily frightened and sometimes talks quite a while when I am standing imder the tree where he is. — Emii,v B. Pellet, Worcester, Mass. Swallow Manceuvers On October 3, 1899, my attention was called to a huge flock of Tree Swallows about a quarter of a mile from my home. (i These birds are abundant here from July to October, but on this occasion at least 2,000 — estimating from photographs and from the counting of the live birds — were col- lected on the telegraph wires and in the adjoining fields, and not a single specimen of any other species could be found in the Hock. On the wires were hundreds at a time, crowded together between three poles ; they seemed to have lost their usual fear of man, remaining even when carriages went under them, and not always starting up when the wires were struck by a stone — a temptation to throw which the passing small boys found it impossible to resist. Beside the road is a small brook with two or three exposed pools, and here was a great oval whirl of birds, all going in the same direction, each in passing dipping for a drink, then rising to re-take its place in the line. Now and then some returned to the wires or others joined the drinkers, but the numbers were so great that a collision seemed unavoidable. A large part of the flock had settled in a pasture some distance away, in so close a group that they made a spot of blue on the short grass. Crossing over to these I found them quietly enjoying the sunlight, and as I approached from the southwest all had their backs toward me, showing to perfec- tion the beautiful steel-blue of the feathers. Most of the time they were still, though now and then one undertook to walk a few inches, if, indeed, such a ridiculous hobble could be called a walk. But forty feet was near enough for a person — then those near- est me rose and passing over the others, alighted in front of them, and so they moved regularly on before me. Some of this portion of the flock were on a wire fence near at hand, a very small proportion, though over 100 were on a single wire between five posts, and these were so fearless that when the last one flew I was but two steps away. 74)