MID-APRIL 47 
weather before it ventured to rise from the 
ground upon the wing. It must have win- 
tered in some sheltered nook, and its little 
muscles were still semi-paralysed from cold. 
The ample verdure which nature supplies 
hides, protects and shades the homes made 
baaoirds.. . But. scarcely)’ a. leaf. is: dis- 
turbed by the careful architects to betray 
the fact that much busy work has been done 
by them. But now the nests that are there 
are easy to find, because there are so few 
leaves. Yet each one has to be examined 
by the bird-nester to see if it be old or new. 
To the experienced eye the difference is seen 
at a glance; if the material has a dull and 
soiled look, even though the nest be sound, 
it is a last year’s one. But if the bents of 
grass are yellow, and the odds and ends of 
string and cloth are bright, or the hair, the 
feathers and fibres appear glossy, then 
they have been placed there only the other 
day, they are not weather-beaten, and the 
Hest as. diresh: Look. into: it’; perhaps the 
eggs are there. If not, come that way again 
