PAGE The Author in his Retreat _Frontispiece_ Bob-White in Colors 6 Cat Bird 7 Young Screech Owl 8 Humming Bird 8 White Throated Sparrows 9 Blue-Bird and Family 10 Young Male Cardinal 11 Thrasher’s Admiration 12 Cardinal in Colors 12 A Scene in Washington, N. C. 16 Baby Ambitious to Rise 18 Veery Celebrating the King’s Marriage 19 Hermit Thrush in Colors 21 Dove and Bluebirds, Swan, Zebra and Colt, Macaw, Chipmunk, Young Pet Thrasher 22 The Author’s Retreat in the Wild Wood 23 Young Green Heron 23 The Mocking-Bird in Colors 25 The Jay Bird and I 26 A Nigger and a Mule 29 Virginia’s Natural Bridge 30 A Perpetual King, Cotton Gin, A Cotton Mill 31 My Own Little Girl 33 My Butterfly 33 A Babe, Later an Imprisoned Boy 34 Feeding Young Mocking-Bird 35 Big Pinnacle on Pilot Mountain 36 Aurelius Augustinus 38 Two Little Orphans 42 Trouble and Play 43 Nature’s Fairy Crosses 46 Col. Diamond and Grand-daughter 47 The Wild Wood 48 A Pre-Revolutionary Stone Mansion, 7 Years Being Built 53 “Rock Ribbed Pen” in which Miss Martin was placed by the Tories 54 Blind Negro 56 Mistletoe 57 The Kid and the Cop 59-60 New River, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 63 Water Fall Near Tories’ Den, and Beach Scene 64 Chimney Rock in North Carolina 66 The Elephant Dance and Old Ship Church 67 The Bishop’s Garden 69 My Triolet 70 Lookout Mountain 72 Woodrow Wilson 75 O Baby Mine 77 The Snake That’s King 78 Notre Dame 79 Miss Cameron and Billy 83 Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt 84 Ann Gray and Pet Macaw 85 The Tots That Turned the Tide 87 Walter Malone 90
“Start-right, you-hob-bright!” ’Twas fluted so clear, It wakened the songsters and startled my ear,
As the King of the morning repelled the dark night, And the reveille sounded, “All-right! Bob-Bob-White!”
The Mocking-bird earliest answered the call, And gladly his echoes were welcomed by all,
As each took his place in the Nature-trained choir, And bird after bird began tuning his lyre.
The songsters had started a sweet roundelay, When suddenly up bounced a meddlesome Jay.
He wanted to sing, This feathered thing; Or brilliant colors to impress, With spontaneous wantonness; With spirit too to over-rule, Like the self-important fashion fool.
In soft monotone crooned the Black-billed Cuckoo, “Tho not much at singing, I’ll surely beat you.”