180 THE CUCKOO AND HER NEST. 



Well, now for the sequel. One claj^, a month or 

 two later, while threading my way through the 

 woods, presto ! I stumbled upon the nest, now 

 deserted and lone, that had so long eluded my 

 quest. Ignoramus that I was, I had mistaken the 

 locality, and had been looking along the wrong 

 lane all the while ; and yet I had been pluming 

 m3^self on my familiarity with every nook and 

 niche of that woodland ! Verily, " a haughty 

 spirit goeth before a fall," and " he that exalteth 

 himself shall be abashed." 



Another cuckoo built her residence about twenty 

 feet from the ground on the out-stretching limb of 

 a half-grown tree near the cliffs of a loitering 

 brook. The fourth of this nest quartette I found 

 on the eleventh of August. It was lodged on the 

 horizontal branch of a small oak-tree. The branch 

 extended out over a path that wound through the 

 grove, and along which a nu-mber of shopmen 

 passed every morning and evening to and from 

 their work. Here the gentle bird sat upon her 

 nest, hatched her eggs and reared her brood, undis- 

 turbed by the pedestrians who pursued the path- 

 way beneath her cottage. 



That engaging writer, Bradford Torrey, has de- 

 scribed in his unique style the behavior of a bi; .. 



