thayeh] A DAY' S WORK IX BIRD-LAND 295 



The male guarded jealously his premises, and he allowed no 

 intruders. Once he seized a large bumble-bee which had alighted 

 near the nest, and flew away with it. 



Some bread which I had placed on the brush-pile to see if the 



wrens would eat, he seemed afraid to touch, but he would not 



allow the English sparrows which came up, hoping for a feast, to get 



a taste. 



We watched the wrens nest together for sixteen hours and eight 



minutes, or until 7.38 p.m.. except that in two hours of that time we 



took turns in going to breakfast and dinner. It was a strenuous day, 



but if so to us, sitting comfortably on our cushions, what must it have 



been to those tiny creatures which like the canary of Dickens' Little 



Nell were "so slight the pressure of a finger would have crushed." 



The accurate facts which we sought are ours. We no longer think 

 the estimates made by ornithologists as to the birds' earing capacity 

 large; but we wonder if they are not too small. 



As we return each into his own little world once more, we — many 



of us teachers in the public schools — will carry a new impetus to work 



for the preservation and protection of bird-life, realizing that — 



" The life that floods the happy fields 

 With song and light and color, 

 Will shape our lives to richer state, 

 And heap our measures fuller." 



