BIRDS'-NESTS. 123 



the earth beneath me. Following him, my eye also 

 took in farms and settlements and villages and othei 

 mountain ranges that grew blue in the distance. 



The parent birds attracted my attention by appear- 

 ing with food in their beaks, and by seeming much 

 put out. Yet so wary were they of revealing the 

 locality of their brood, or even of the precise tree 

 that held them, that I lurked around over an hour 

 without gaining a point on them. Finally a bright 

 and curious boy who accompanied me secreted him- 

 self under a low, projecting rock close to the tree 

 'n which we supposed the nest to be, while I moved 

 off around the mountain-side. It was not long be- 

 fore the youth had their secret. The tree, which 

 was low and wide branching, and overrun with lich- 

 ens, appeared at a cursory glance to contain not one 

 dry or decayed limb. Yet there was one a few feet 

 long, in which, when my eyes were piloted thither, I 

 detected a small round orifice. 



As my weight began to shake the branches, the 

 consternation of both old and young was great. The 

 stump of a limb that held the nest was about three 

 inches thick, and at the bottom of the tunnel was ex- 

 cavated quite to the bark. With my thumb I broke 

 in the thin wall, and the young, which were full- 

 fledged, looked out upon the world for the first time, 

 presently one of them, which a significant chirp, as 

 much as to say, " It is time we were out of this," be- 

 gan to climb up toward the proper entrance. Placing 

 Vmself in the hole, ne looked around without mnni 



