146 SCRAPING aga UAINTANCE. 
wards the female bravely sat still, while I bent 
over her, admiring her courage and her hand- 
some dress. I paid my respects to the little 
mother almost daily, but jealously guarded her 
secret, sharing it only with a kind-hearted 
woman, whom I.took with me on one of my 
visits. But, alas! one day I called, only to 
find the nest empty. Whether the villain who 
pillaged it traveled on two legs, or on four, I 
never knew. Possibly he dropped out of the 
air. But I wished him no good, whoever he 
was. Next year the birds appeared again, and 
more than one pair of them; but no nest could 
I find, though I often looked for it, and, as 
children say in their games, was sometimes very 
warm. 
Is there any lover of birds in whose mind 
certain birds and certain places are not indis- 
solubly joined? Most of us, I am sure, could 
go over the list and name the exact spots 
where we first saw this one, where we first 
heard that one sing, and where we found 
our first nest of the other. There is a piece 
of swampy woodland in Jefferson, New Hamp- 
shire, midway between the hotels and the rail- 
way station, which, for me, will always be as- 
sociated with the song of the winter wren. I 
had been making an attempt to explore the 
wood, with a view to its botanical treasures ; 
