146 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. / 



you like, if you are careful not to disarrange the imme- 

 diate surroundings, the old birds will not be disturbed. 

 I have even placed my hand on a robin on her nest 

 wliile she was looking straight at me ; then she moved 

 only a foot or so away, where she remained until I had 

 counted the four eggs she was incubating, and while I 

 yet stood by the bush she again took her place on the 

 nest, and I left her looking as serene out of her clear 

 eyes as though no intruder had been nigh. At another 

 time a blue bird kept her place and pecked my hand 

 while I examined the nest. But it is early autumn, 

 after the leaves begin to redden and the woodbine to 

 glorify the fences and bushes with their traceries of 

 blended colors, where the thistle and wild lettuce seeds 

 are ripening, and the sweet elder and poke weed are 

 purple with shining berries, when the thorn apples, 

 which grow here in great abundance, are showing red 

 among the russet leaves, that the birds come to this 

 place in greatest numbers ; many species meeting as if 

 by a common understanding and by mutual consent, 

 some coming for food, some for shelter, some apparently 

 for seclusion, while others are here with their last sum- 

 mer's brood, which they are teaching to sing. It is a 

 rare pleasure on a mild September day to sit on the 

 sunny slope of this ravine and listen to one of these 

 musical performances. Sometimes it is the robins, 

 sometimes the cat birds, or blue birds, but oftenest you 

 may hear the song sparrows practicing in the leafy con- 

 servatory. The old birds will sing a few bars, then the 

 young will take up the strain in that wavering, uncer- 



