86 



Bird- Lore 



the wife for me.' Every trip the mother bird made he would accom- 

 pany her a short distance and then return to his perch. 



As the nest -building seemed unusually prolonged, I went up one 

 morning to the new house to see how matters were progressing. Instead 

 of one nest I found five in process of construction. Some had only the 

 foundation laid, others were an inch or two high, and one was three- 

 fourths finished. I sat down to see what it all meant. Presently the 

 eager builder came with her beak loaded and dropped down upon one of 

 the nest foundations. She seemed to hesitate a moment, as if she had a 

 suspicion that something was wrong, and then put down her material and 

 Hew quickly away. The next time she struck the nearly finished nest and 



PHCEBE ON NEST 



put down her load without hesitating. I watched her for half an hour and 

 soon saw how it was with her — why she scattered so. I concluded she 

 was misled by the sameness of the rafters — they were all alike, and which- 

 ever one she chanced to hit in her hurry, there she deposited her mortar. 

 She had been used to a ledge where there was but one building site ; 

 here there were half a dozen or more, with no perceptible difference 

 between them. So I hit upon a plan to concentrate her — I put blocks 

 of wood or stones in all the nests but one and watched the result. 

 When now she came upon these strange obstacles she would hover about 

 for a moment until she discovered the largest antl unincumbered nest, 

 when she would alight upon it and leave her load. She then soon took 

 the hint, finished the one nest, laid her second set of eggs and went 

 forward with the incubation. Hut the e\il fates still pursued her. One 



