gentleman had suddenly hopped over the head of
the grand dame his _vis-a-vis_. When this strange new figure was
introduced, number one proved equal to the emergency, hopping backward,
and turning so dexterously that when his partner alighted they were
facing, and about a foot apart, as before. The object of all this was
very uncertain to a looker-on. It might be the approaches of love, and
quite as probably the wary beginnings of war, and the next feature of
the programme was not explanatory; they rose together in the air ten
feet or more, face to face, fluttering and snatching at each other,
apparently trying to clinch; succeeding in doing so, they fell to the
ground, separated just before they touched it, and flew away. O wings!
most maddening to a bird-student.

It was not very long after these performances, which seem to me to
belong to the courtship period, when I noticed that my bird had won his
bride, and they were busy house-hunting. The place they apparently
preferred, and at last fixed upon, was at an unusual height for
mocking-birds, near the top of one of the tall pines, and I was no less
surprised than pleased to see them lay the foundation of their home in
that spot. I congratulated myself that at least one brood in North
Carolina would have a chance to come to maturity and be free; and so
persistent is the warfare waged against this bird--unfortunately
marketable at any stage from the egg--that I almost doubt if another
will. The day after they began building a northwest storm set in, and
for three days we had high winds and cold weather. In spite of this, the
brave birds persevered, and finished their nest during those three days,
although much of the time they made infrequent trips. It was really most
touching to watch them at their unnatural task, and remember that
nothing but the cruelty of man forced them to it (one nest had been
destroyed). Their difficulty was to get up against the wind, and, having
little experience in flying upward, they made the natural mistake of
starting from the foot of their chosen tree. Sometimes, at first, they
flew with the body almost perpendicular; and afterwards, when they held
the body in proper position, they wished to go so directly up that they
turned the head back over the shoulder to see where they were going. The
wind, too, beat them far out of their course, and they were obliged to
alight and rest, occasionally being forced to cling to the trunk of a
tree to re