12 THE KINGBIRD'S NEST. 



while all the women go out and help his wife to 

 get him home. The most troublesome meddler 

 was, as might be expected, an English sparrow. 

 From the time when the first stick was laid till 

 the babies were grown and had left the tree, that 

 bird never ceased to intrude and annoy. He 

 visited the nest when empty ; he managed to have 

 frequent peeps at the young ; and notwithstand- 

 ing he was driven off every time, he still hung 

 around, with prying ways so exasperating that 

 he well deserved a thrashing, and I wonder he 

 did not get it. He was driven away repeat- 

 edly, and he was "picked off" from below, and 

 pounced upon from above, but he never failed to 

 return. 



Another visitor of whom the kingbird seemed 

 suspicious was a purple crow blackbird, who 

 every day passed over. This bird and the com- 

 mon crow were the only ones he drove away 

 without waiting for them to alight; and if half 

 that is told of them be true, he had reason to 

 do so. 



With none of these intruders had the king- 

 bird any quarrel when away from his nest. The 

 blackbird, to whom he showed the most violence, 

 hunted peacefully beside him on the grass all 

 day ; the robin alighted near him on the fence, 

 as usual; the orioles scrambled over the neigh- 

 boring trees, singing and eating, as was their 



