170 BIRDS ABOUT THE HOUSE. 



garden and putting them in the alley beneath the 

 nest. It was surprising how quickly she would 

 espy them squirming about. Slie would at once 

 make a plunge for them, and having seized one in 

 her bill, would beat it on the hard ground until it 

 was dead, and then carry it to her nestlings. 

 When the young birds had become well fledged, 

 their cradle would scarcely hold them, and they 

 jostled one another quite roughly. At last, one 

 morning, when I stepped out of the door, I found 

 that they had spread their wings and left the home 

 of their childhood. On the ground I discovered 

 one too weak yet to fly, and having caught him, 

 lifted him to a limb out of the reach of prowling 

 cats. 



When the birds had no further use for the nest, 

 I took it down for examination. It was so firmly 

 glued to the railing by the adhesive mortar used, 

 that it required an effort to wrench it loose. Be- 

 sides, it was tied quite skillfully with cord to the 

 vines that creep about the balusters, the strings 

 being held firmly in the solid clay near the rim of 

 the nest. A substantial cup, lined with soft grass 

 fibers, had been made of stiff mortar, into which 

 and about which there was an inartistic fabric 

 woven of various materials, grass and root fibers, 



