132 Sketches of Some Coynmon Birds. 



and I fixed my eyes on the bird to note his further move- 

 ments. He, however, "was fully as wide awake as myself, 

 and I knew by his furtive glances toward me that he 

 suspected I was quietly taking notes. After hopping in- 

 differently for a yard or more, he carelessly dropped the 

 stem and unconcernedly hopped away in and among the 

 bushes, as if he had given up further work for the day. 

 I was completely baffled, for though I lay in wait near 

 that place several different times on succeeding days, and 

 afterwards searched the vicinity closely for a nest, I saw 

 no more of the construction of the nest, and indeed do not 

 know whether it was finished or a new site chosen. 



The female towhee is a close sitter, and can usually be 

 surprised while brooding her egg or young. In fact, the 

 nest can generally be found only by flushing the sitting 

 bird from the spot, ^ot long ago a friend and myself 

 were rambling through a brushy ravine in the woods, and 

 were climbing up one side of the branch. He had just 

 passed up ahead of me, though I was close at his heels, 

 when right behind his foot and almost in my face fluttered 

 a towhee. Feigning injury, as usually does the female 

 when startled from her nest, she flitted over the bank and 

 disappeared among the bushes. Standing still in my 

 tracks, I glanced about for the nest revealed by the 

 actions of the owner. Failing to discover it by looking 

 down, I stepped back and looked up the steep slope. A 

 suspicious hollow under a horizontal elm shoot caughtmy 

 eye. There was the nest, one of the prettiest and best 

 hidden I ever found, set almost under the roots of the 

 out-growing twig, yet where the mother bird could peep 

 out and catch glimpses of the warm midday sun in her 

 cool retreat. Even in her well-concealed home, however, 

 the eager eyes of the cowbirds had espied her snug and 

 cozy sitting-room, and there with her own two eggs lay 

 four eggs of the skulking parasite, two having been de- 

 posited by each of two different females, from their obvious 

 resemblances and differences, two and two. Think of the 

 burden imposed upon that anxious mother, to care for 

 four hungry urchins who would quickly starve her right- 

 ful offspring by offering their great gaping, yellow mouths 

 for every morsel of food she could carry to the nest ! 



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