THE TOO CLEVER CHAT. 101 



hopeless ! I abandoned that plan, and resolved 

 to go to a grove not heretofore invaded, being 

 absolutely impenetrable from undergrowth. My 

 way led across a cornfield, over stone walls, 

 through thickets and bushes everywhere. Many 

 other birds I startled, and at last came a chat's 

 "mew" from a wild jungle of ailantus and 

 brambles, which nothing less effective than an 

 axe could pass through. But on I went around 

 the edge, the chat's call accompanying me, and 

 at the point where it sounded loudest I dropped 

 to a humble position, hoping that eyes might 

 enter further than feet. Nothing to be seen or 

 heard but a flit of wings. The singer tried to 

 lead me away, but I was serious and not to be 

 coaxed, and all his manoeuvres failed. I seated 

 myself on the ground, for now I heard low, soft 

 baby calls, and determined to stay there till the 

 crack of doom, or till I had solved the mystery 

 of those calls. 



But I did not stay so long, and I did not see 

 the babies. An hour or two of watching weak- 

 ened my determination, and slowly and sadly I 

 wended my way homeward ; admiring, while I 

 execrated, the too, too clever tactics of the chat. 

 But I did make one discovery, — that a sound 

 which had puzzled me, like the distant blow 

 of an axe against a tree, must be added to 

 the repertoiy^e of the chat mother. I saw her 



