PLEASANT OUTINGS 275 



artifice to make me think the nest was where it was 

 not ; but I steadfastly refused to budge from my tracks 

 as long as she came up in a few moments after descend- 

 ing, for in that case I knew that she was simply resort- 

 ing to a ruse to lead me astray. Finally she went 

 down at a point which she had previously avoided, and, 

 as it was evident she was becoming exceedingly anxious 

 to go back upon her eggs, I watched her like a tiger 

 intent on his prey. Slyly she crept about in the grass, 

 presently her chirping ceased, and she disappeared. 



Several minutes passed, and she did not come up, 

 so I felt sure she had gone down for good this time, 

 and was sitting on her nest. Her husband exerted 

 himself to his utmost to beguile my attention with his 

 choicest arias, but no amount of finesse would now turn 

 me from my purpose. I made a bee-line for the spot 

 where I had last seen the madame, stopping not, nor 

 veering aside for water, mud, bushes, or any other ob- 

 stacle. A search of a couple of minutes brought no 

 find, for she had employed all the strategy of which she 

 was mistress in going to the nest, having moused along 

 in the grass for some distance after I had last seen her. 

 I made my search in an ever-widening circle, and at 

 length espied some dry grass spears in a tuft right at 

 my feet ; then the little prospective mother flitted from 

 her nest and went trailing on the ground, feigning to 

 be fatally wounded. 



