BIRDS' ENEMIES. 165 



be the snake. If you have been well brought up and 

 know your Alice in Wonderland, you remember how 

 frightened the pigeon was when Alice grew so tall 

 that her long neck reached up through the trees. 

 " You 're a snake," said the pigeon, and would have 

 nothing to do with her. 



Many a poor bird, sitting in her nest, concealed 

 from all enemies, has heard a rustling in the leaves 

 and seen the flat head of the snake, the cold, shiny 

 eyes, and the forked tongue. If she has young in the 

 nest she tries to drive the snake off, and her cries 

 bring other birds ; but sometimes the snake is too 

 strong for them and the young are swallowed before 

 the mother's eyes. Not even birds that build in ponds 

 are safe, for snakes can swim as well as climb. How 

 is it, then, that birds manage to protect themselves 

 from so many enemies } The list is long already, and 

 yet we have not mentioned the foxes, the crows, the 

 Butcher Bird, and other marauders and thieves. 



To begin with, if the bird's enemies are sly, the 

 bird itself is wide-awake. Watch a wren in a stone 

 wall, or a Song Sparrow in a brush heap, and see how 

 he slips in and out like a mouse. No matter how 

 busily the bird is feeding or frolicking, he never for- 

 gets that danger may be near, and on the first sign of 

 an enemy all is silence and the place is apparently 

 deserted. 



