DISCOURAGING THE BLACKBIRDS. 69 



branch, dead and leafless, afforded no screen for 

 the brave little mother. Look when one might, 

 in the hottest sunshine or the heaviest rain, there 

 sat the bird quite up out of the nest, head erect 

 and eyes eagerly watching for intruders. The 

 pewee, for all his tender and melancholy utter- 

 ances, has a fiery spirit. He hesitates not to 

 clinch with a brother pewee, interpolates his 

 sweetest call into the hot chases, and even when 

 resting between encounters, spreads his tail, flut- 

 ters his wings, and erects his crest in a most 

 warlike manner. The little dame was not a 

 whit less vigilant than her spouse. Let but a 

 blackbird pass over and she was off in a twink- 

 ling, pursuing him, pouncing down upon him 

 savagely, and all the time uttering her plaintive 

 "pe-o-wee! " till her mate joined her, and made 

 it so uncomfortable for the big foe that he de- 

 parted, protesting to be sure in vigorous black- 

 birdese, but taking good care to go. So persis- 

 tent were the pewees in these efforts, that in a 

 few days they convinced a pair of blackbirds 

 (purple crow blackbirds) that this part of the 

 grove was no longer a thoroughfare, and whereas 

 they had been quite frequent visitors, they were 

 now rarely seen. 



The saucy robin who chose to insist upon his 

 right to alight on their tree, as he had always 

 done, was harder to convince ; in fact, he never 



