ANOTHER NEST THAT FAII.ED. IO3 



house builders in the small maple, exposed as it was on 

 the north, east, and west, was pretty well flooded, and 

 what was more in evidence was that this mother bird seem- 

 ed to be unattended. 



No happy, expectant mate was at hand, ever with a 

 dainty morsel or dangling worm. 



What could this mean ? 



Was the other parent away or was he a deserter, a 

 trait which I had never known the robin to possess. Af- 

 ter a time, by considerable peering and craning of neck, I 

 discovered during the mother's short absence, that five 

 greenish-blue eggs reposed within that nest, but her flights 

 were few and far between. I began to be very much in- 

 terested in my neighbor's affairs, who always sat so pa- 

 tiently upon that nest, watching and looking anxiously 

 about. 



I think she never quite knew just what had happened 

 to her mate. But I imagine that I do, still I can only con- 

 jecture from two little circumstances. 



One afternoon, about this time, after the dismissal of 

 school, down the street came a group of happy boys and 

 girls and as they passed, I noticed by their noisy laughter 

 something unusual had happened. lyooking out, I discov- 

 ered that one of the boys was teasing the girls, as boys 

 will sometimes do, and in his hands was a dead robin red- 

 breast, with which he was frightening them. 



Also, at this time, we missed the singing of one whose 

 notes were more thrush-like and whom we had admired as 

 an unusually fine singer for a robin. 



By what means our neighbor had come to* so vmtimely 

 an end, I can only leave you to imagine, but had he fallen 

 a prey to one of the many cats, I think he would have been 

 devoured and not been found upon the lawn. 



From that time on, my sympathy for that lone bird upon 

 the nest was greatly increased. How was she to provide 



