34 BIRDS. 
I peeped in upon it, it was empty. The proud song 
of the male had ceased from his accustomed tree, and 
the pair were seen no more in that vicinity. ) 
The pheebe-bird is a wise architect, and perhaps 
enjoys as great an immunity from danger, both in 
its person and its nest, as any other bird. Its mod- 
est, ashen-gray suit is the color of the rocks where it 
builds, and the moss of which it makes such free use 
gives to its nest the look of a natural growth or ac- 
cretion. But when it comes into the barn or under 
the shed to build, as it so frequently does, the moss is 
rather out of place. Doubtless in tine the bird will 
take the hint, and when she builds in such places will 
leave the moss out. I noted but two nests, the sum- 
mer I am speaking of: one, in a barn, failed of issue, 
on account of the rats, I suspect, though the little 
owl may have been the depredator ; the other, in the 
woods, sent forth three young. This latter nest was 
most charmingly and ingeniously placed. I discov- 
ered it while in quest of pond-lilies, in a long, deep, . 
level stretch of water in the woods. A large tree had 
blown over at the edge of the water, and its dense mass 
of up-turned roots, with the black, peaty soil filling 
the interstices, was like the fragment of a wall several 
feet high, rising from the edge of the languid current. 
In a niche in this earthy wall, and visible and acces- 
sible only from the water, a phebe had built her nest 
and reared her brood. I paddled my boat up and 
came alongside prepared to take the family aboard. 
The young, nearly ready to fly, were quite undisturbed 
by my presence, having probably been assured that no 
danger need be apprehended from that side. It was 
not a likely place for minks, or they would not have 
been so secure. 
