122 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



for this hat was a special treasure of mine which had 

 been bought only two days before, and it was the first hat 

 I had ever seen made from white straw with a purple 

 straw woven in every inch or so. 



I trudged as fast as my four-year-old legs would carry 

 me to get my hat, but to my surprize when I went to pick 

 it up this poor crippled dove fell almost at my feet again. 

 I was sure this time that she was mortally hurt. I had 

 seen birds that had been shot make a desperate effort 

 and fly for a distance only to fall utterly exhausted at 

 last. Clutching my hat in one hand I gave chase again but 

 some way or another when we had gotten far enough away 

 this dove managed to rise and fly again. This time I went 

 home to tell mother my troubles and ask her about the 

 bird. You may imagine my chagrin when she told me that 

 this bird was not hurt at all, but was merely feigning in 

 order to lead me away from her nest. She told me that 

 if I would pay no attention to the bird but looked sharp I 

 undoubtedly would find a nest in the hedge very close to the 

 spot where I first found the bird. 



As soon as she could get her work in condition so that 

 she could leave, she went with me to help find the nest, 

 for no barefooted boy would dare to get near enough to an 

 Osage Orange hedge to look into a bird's nest. Sure 

 enough, in the forks of an old limb that had been stuck 

 through the hedge to fill up a hole where some cow at 

 one time or another had broken through was a dove's nest, 

 the first one I remember having seen. It seemed to me 

 that it was about the poorest excuse for a bird's nest imag- 

 inable. All there was to it was a flat saucer of sticks with 

 a few straws and weeds stuck in to form a rim. In this 

 nest were two almost perfectly round snow white eggs. 



