Birds of the Indian Hills 



my view of it. This was annoying, but I 

 had one resource left, namely, to sit patiently 

 until the sound of chirping told me that a 

 parent bird was at the nest with food. 



This sound was not long in coming, and 

 the moment I heard it, up I jumped like a 

 Jack-in-the-box, but without the squeak, in 

 time to see a forktail leave a spot on the 

 bank about 6 feet above the water. I was 

 surprised, as I had the day before examined 

 that place without discovering the nest. How- 

 ever, I went straight to the spot from which 

 the forktail had flown, and found the nest 

 after a little searching. The bank was steep 

 and of uneven surface. Here and there a slab 

 of stone projected from it and pointed down- 

 wards. Into a natural hollow under one of 

 these projecting slabs a nest consisting of a 

 large mass of green moss and liver-worts had 

 been wedged. From the earth above the slab 

 grew some ferns, which partially overhung the 

 nest. Across the nest, a few inches in front 

 of it, ran a moss-covered root. From out of 

 the mossy walls of the nest there emerged a 

 growing plant. All these things served to 

 divert attention from the nest, bulky though 



this was, its outer walls being over 2 inches 

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