NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH 
day of May, asmall gray bird with a mouthful 
of worms disappeared in a thorn-bush, I at 
once investigated. Did not all the books 
tell me that chickadees nested in hollow 
trees or old stumps, in old woodpeckers’ 
holes, or holes excavated by themselves in 
birch-trees? Why look for a nest in a 
thorn-bush? But there at the foot of the 
bush, well hidden by the thick branches, 
was the rotten stump of a small tree, and 
in one side, only twelve inches from the 
ground, a small hole. Could this be my 
treasure found at last? Cautiously I probed 
it with a grass stem. The intrusion was 
greeted with such a storm of hisses as left 
no room for doubt. Retreating at once to a 
discreet distance, I sat down to watch. Now, 
what may constitute a discreet distance dif- 
fers with the innate valor of the individual 
chickadee. This particular pair were exceed- 
ingly timid, and would not go to the nest 
until I had gone thirty feet away. Then 
the mother bird, with much hesitation, flew 
to the thorn-bush, looked about, talked a 
I12 
