CHAPTER X 



COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 



In the bird's year the season of song is the season of trag- 

 edy. The wonder is that during the nest-building time 

 birds have the heart to sing at all. Danger is ever present, 

 and it is probably not an exaggeration to say that disaster 

 attends at least one-half of the attempts of the songsters to 

 rear their young. There are so many casualties among bird 

 homes that the nesting season holds for the field student rather 

 more of pain than of pleasure. It has struck me many times 

 that the birds must feel that the whole world is against them 

 when they are trying so patiently and so bravely to see that 

 their kind does not perish from the earth. From the moment 

 that the first egg appears the shadow of danger is across the 

 threshold of the little home. There are the perils of wind 

 and flood, of egg-loving snakes, and of egg-collecting boys. 

 A little later, when the young appear, there is danger from 

 prowling cats and looting owls, and from men nest-robbers, 

 who pretend to think that the proper sphere of a wild bird lies 

 within the limits of a cage. 



The books tell us that many species of birds build their 

 nests near the habitations of men because of the protection 

 that is afforded by such locations. The theory is, that owls, 

 hawks, and snakes avoid the vicinity of civilization, and thus 

 the nesting birds are relieved from the fear of the depredations 

 of these natural enemies. There is another side to the ques- 

 tion, however. The minute that the bird places its home on 



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