SOME birds' nests. 213 



little legs. But before night all had taken wings, to the 

 elm, and who knows but that his mother praised the prom- 

 ising good sense of this first family explorer, and urged 

 the other three to like exertions. Will the}^ return to the 

 same nest ? Or shall we remove it as in the case of the 

 robins ? 



Two years ago we found a wood-thrush's nest in a 

 young pine, about nine feet up, at the junction of four 

 branches with the trunk. The weather destroyed the nest 

 in early August. Last year, at about the same time (May 

 30), we visited the tree. There in the same spot, and in 

 the same attitude, we found the bird again brooding. It 

 seemed like a beautiful fairy tale, as though no winter 

 winds and snows, and not one hour had intervened. 



The oven-bird's and redstart's homes were discovered 

 May 29. The brave little ground builder's nest I have 

 before me ; it has a depth of about five inches, is lined 

 with pine needles, and the outer covering is of dry leaves 

 and small twigs ; it looked exactly like the surrounding 

 leaf-fall ; when first seen it held five eggs. At her front 

 door was a stately brake, like an old English elm before a 

 cottage door; she sat facing the noon-daj- sun, at her left 

 were two protectors, a hard pine, and a sturdy oak. How 

 jealously we guarded our approach to that nest, lest some 

 wandering boj's discover the broken twigs and brakes, and 

 so find the spot. The day following the discovery of the 

 nest, about thirty Institute people were allowed to peep 

 into it, after being sworn to secrecy regarding its wherea- 

 bouts. 



This was unnecessary as they were all bird lovers ; some 

 of them afterwards said they could not rediscover it upon 

 trial, however, hunt as they might. What was our alarm 

 to discover, within the next week, that some wretched 

 person had set fire to the dry brush in the near vicinity of 

 the nest; it was extinguished within three feet of the spot. 



