he could feel the rapid patting of a wildly beating 
heart against his hand. Gently he stroked the 
bird’s back and said kind words to him. Then 
he offered him a peanut, but Robin Hood only 
bit his finger and struggled until pee was glad 
to let him fly away. 
IV 
In LEss than three weeks after the red squirrel 
raided Robin Hood’s home this doughty bird 
and his mate had built themselves another nest. 
It was very much like the first, being constructed 
chiefly of twigs and lined with very small roots. 
You could not have told any difference in the 
new eggs either, for they were spotted and pretty 
just like those of the first setting. The nest was 
about fifteen feet from the ground and rested on 
a limb close to the trunk of a small evergreen 
tree. It was hidden so well that no squirrel or 
pilfering crow ever found it. During the seven- 
teen days that passed before the eggs were 
hatched, the female jay remained almost con- 
tinuously on the nest. She took few chances of 
leaving it exposed, and in fact she had little need 
98 
