One who loves the birds and is so much in sympathy with them as to make
it appear sometimes that they have taken her into their "order," had a
charming glimpse, a few years ago, of a covey of quails in one of their
frolics. She described it as follows:
"I never hear the call of 'Ah, Bob White!' or catch a glimpse of those
shy little vocalists, that I do not think of how I once surprised
them in the prettiest dance I ever saw. I had heard of the games and
the frolics of birds and have often watched them with delight, but I
never saw any bird-play that interested me as this, that seemed like a
quadrille of a little company of quails.
"They were holding their pretty carnival at the side of a country road
along which I was slowly strolling, and I came in sight of them so
quietly as to be for a time unobserved, although they had two little
sentinels posted--one at each end of the company.
"Between these bright-eyed little watchers, always on the alert, a
dozen or more birds were tip-toeing in a square. Every motion was
with all the grace and harmony which are nature's own. At some little
bird-signal which I didn't see, two birds advanced from diagonal
corners of the square, each bird tripping along with short, airy and
graceful steps, something like what we imagine characterized the
old-time 'minuet.' Each bird, as the partners came near each other,
bobbed its head in a graceful little bow, and both tripped back as they
came to their places in the square. Immediately the birds from the
two other corners advanced with the same airy grace, the same short,
quick, and tripping steps, saluting and retreating as the others had
done.
"A wagon driven along the road disturbed the band of dancers, who
scudded away under leaves, through the fence, into the deep grass
of the field beyond. When the team had passed out of sight and
the ball-room was again their own, back came the pretty revelers
stealthily, their brown heads uplifted as their bright eyes scanned the
landscape. Seeing no intruder, they again took their places the same as
before and began again the same quadrille--advancing, meeting, bowing,
and retreating.
"It was the prettiest and most graceful little 'society affair' you
can imagine! There was no music--no song that I could hear--yet every
little bird in every turn and step while the dance was on, moved as to
a measured harmony.
"Did the birds keep 'time--time, in a sort of runic rhyme' to melody
in their hearts, or to a symphony, I could not hear, but which goes
up unceasingly like a hymn of praise from nature's great orchestra? I
longed to know.
"In my delight and desire to learn more of the bewitching bird-play, I
half forgot I was a clumsy woman, and an unconscious movement betrayed
my presence. The little sentinel nearest me quickly lifted his brown
head, and spying me gave his signal--how, I could not guess, for not
a sound was uttered; but all the dancers stretched their little necks
an instant and sped away. In a moment the ground was cleared and the
dancers came not back."
[Illustration: PRESENTED BY LOUIS G. KUNZE.
ENGLISH GRAPES.
2/3 Life-size.
COPYRIGHT 1899,
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]