LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT. 39 



Nest of Western Gnatcatcher. 

 (From a photograph.) 



always cocked on one side or the other to look 

 down at something, and long tails that are always 

 flipping about as their owners flaunt gayly through 

 the bushes. At sound of their voices I pulled 

 Billy up out of the ditch, and, slipping from his 

 back, sat down on the ground to wait for the 

 birds. Eureka ! there, in a slender young oak 

 on the edge of the stream not a rod away, one of 

 the pair was gliding off its nest, a beautiful lichen- 

 covered, compact little structure such as I had 

 admired years before. I was jubilant. What a 



