168 Bir.DS AIJOUT THE HOUSE. 



want to take to preaching, but he is a poor writer, 

 indeed, who cannot sometimes point a moral, and 

 he must be a poor reader who cannot occasionally 

 endure one. 



I remember that I had myself intended one 

 spring to take a trip of a few hundred miles for a 

 little special study and relaxation, but when the 

 time came to go, there were so many interesting 

 things to-investigate in my own neighborhood that 

 I could not get the consent of my mind to leave 

 them, and I have reason to be glad that I remained 

 at home. Had I gone on that journey, I should 

 have missed some very interesting incidents of the 

 bird-life right about my own home. These I shall 

 try to describe. 



First, I must tell you about a very sociably dis- 

 posed pair of robins which built their nest on the 

 balustrade of my veranda, where I watched them 

 with rare delight. After the site had been chosen, 

 the nest was soon built, and four bluish-green eggs 

 were deposited in it. Some accident must have 

 befallen the male bird, for he never put in his ap- 

 pearance after incubation began, and I cannot 

 believe that he would have left all the household 

 cares to his wife if he had been able to help her. 

 Yet I may be mistaken in my estimate of his char- 



