36 BIRDS. 
most other birds, is such a serious and engrossing 
matter. If it does not look like play with her, it at 
least looks like leisure and quiet contemplation. 
There is no nest-builder that suffers more from 
crows and squirrels and other enemies than the wood- 
thrush. It builds as openly and unsuspiciously as if 
it thought the whole world as honest as itself. Its 
favorite place is the fork of a sapling, eight or ten feet 
from the ground, where it falls an easy prey to every 
nest-robber that comes prowling through the woods 
and groves. It is not a bird that skulks and hides, 
like the cat-bird, the brown-thrasher, the chat, or the 
cheewink, and its nest is not concealed with the same 
art as theirs. Our thrushes are all frank, open-man- 
nered birds; but the veery and the hermit build upon 
the ground, where they at least escape the crows, owls, 
and jays, and stand a better chance to be overlooked 
by the red squirrel and weasel also; while the robin 
seeks the protection of dwellings and out-buildings. 
For years I have not known the nest of a wood-thrush 
to succeed. During the season referred to I observed 
but two, both apparently a second attempt, as the 
season was well advanced, and both failures. In one 
case, the nest was placed in a branch that an apple- 
tree, standing near a dwelling, held out over the high- 
way. The structure was barely ten feet above the mid- 
dle of the road, and would just escape a passing load 
of hay. It was made conspicuous by the use of a 
large fragment of newspaper in its foundation —an 
unsafe material to build upon in most cases. What- 
ever else the press may guard, this particular news- 
paper did not guard this nest from harm. It saw the 
egg and probably the chick, but not the fledgeling. A 
a deed was committed above the public high- 
