MARCH oo. 
foundation of crumbling moss and mud, with hairs and grass 
for a lining, without spilling some of the nesting-material. 
My mother used to grumble about having the store-room 
window-sill remain in such a litter for so long, but she 
never disturbed the nest, even by brushing away the 
loose moss, and almost every day she would look through 
the window to see how the eggs or young were faring, and 
I thought it a great privilege to be allowed to go to the 
store-room and sit quite still inside the closed window 
and watch the Phoebe’s housekeeping. 
“It was in this way that I first learned how the bird 
stands up in the nest and turns the white eggs over with its 
feet so that they may be evenly warmed through; how the 
young are fed and the droppings removed from the nest 
so that it need not become foul. 
“In spite of great care and constant bathing, for 
Pheebe is very fond of a bath and was always a great 
patron of the log water-trough, the puddles that gathered 
in the gutter after rain, and upon occasion would dash into 
the bucket that always stood under the well-spout, the 
poor bird suffers greatly from insect parasites. The 
reason for this I cannot tell, unless it is that the foundation 
of the nest is so light and spongy on account of the moss, 
that the air does not pass through and the lice breed 
freely. One thing I remember, however, is that as 
soon as the birds had flown, mother always removed the 
empty nest and had its resting-place thoroughly cleansed. 
“This is not so apt to happen when the bird chooses a 
fresh location and makes a new nest for a second brood, 
but upon the only occasion that the window-sill nest was 
used twice in a season, the lice crawled through the win- 
