YOUNG AUDUBON'S CAVE 25 



from the great world in the Pennsylvania woods, even in 

 the estate. He must have further seclusion to do the most 

 perfect work. 



There were great rocks on the woodsy estate, and in 

 one of them was a cave. Here the natural flowers glowed 

 among the green ferns. 



The flycatchers seemed to own the cave; here was the 

 summer city of these little pilgrims of the air. The boy 

 Audubon wished to study these birds that came in the 

 spring with the tropic sun on their wings. 



His coming filled the colony of birds with terror. But 

 Audubon knew how to make friends with the birds. Some- 

 thing seemed to teach him how to charm the eye and win 

 the affection of a bird. 



So he went out to this rock room of his great Pennsyl- 

 vania studio, and sat down in kindly silence to see the gentle 

 flycatchers come and go. He made it easy for them to 

 fly near him, and nearer, until their tiny wings almost 

 fanned him as they glided by. 



He watched them as they built their nests. In a week 

 the birds seemed to know him. They no longer made their 

 nests with fear. 



A pair of these birds had had a nest in the cave a year 

 before — perhaps years before. They began to repair it. 

 Had they remembered this nest in their semitropical wan- 

 derings? 



These birds seemed to have a sense of their family hap- 



