BIRD STORIES 



floated out from the upper windows of the building, 

 quite near; but the birds soon became used to that. 



When the twins were but a few days old, however, 

 their mother had a real scare. A man came up to take 

 down some electric wires that had been fastened not far 

 from the spot that was the Nomer home. He tramped 

 heavily about, throwing down his tools here and there, 

 and whistling loudly as he worked. All this frightened 

 little Mother Nomer. There is no doubt about that, for 

 her heart beat more and more quickly. But she did n't 

 budge. She could n't. It was a part of her camouflage 

 trick to sit still in danger. The greater the danger, the 

 stiller to sit! She even kept her eyes nearly shut, until, 

 when the man had cut the last and nearest end of wire 

 and put all his things together in a pile ready to take 

 down, he came to look over the edge of the roof-wall. 

 As he bent to do this, he brushed suddenly against her. 



Then Mother Nomer sprang into the air; and the man 

 jumped, in such surprise that, had it not been for the 

 wall, he would have fallen from the roof. It would be 

 hard to tell which was the more startled for a moment — 

 man or bird. But Mother Nomer did not fly far. She 

 fell back to the roof some distance from her precious 

 babies and fluttered pitifully about, her wings and tail 

 spread wide and dragging as she moved lamely. She did 

 not look like a part of the pebbly roof now. She showed 



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