154 IN BIRD LAND. 
rollicksome, if not the most tuneful lay of the 
chorus. As a sort of accompaniment, the chipping- 
sparrow often trilled his silvery monotone ; and once 
a robin added his Cheerily, here, here / 
So much for the birds about the house, though 
there were many others that have not been men- 
tioned ; in fact, there were some twenty species in 
all. There were also birds a-plenty in other places. 
A half day was spent in some fields bordering the 
broad river. Ona green slope was a bush-sparrow’s 
nest, daintily bowered in the grass by the side of a 
blackberry bush, and in a thicket hard by two 
yellow-breasted chats had placed their grassy cradles, 
proclaiming their secret to all the world by their 
loud cries of warning to keep away. It is odd that 
these birds, shy and nervous as they are, should go 
so far out of their way to tell you that they have a 
nest somewhere in the copse that you mustn’t _ 
touch, mustn’t even look for. While you are yet a 
quarter of a mile away, they will utter their loud 
cries of warning ; and if you go to the thicket where 
they are, you will be almost sure to find their nest, 
so poorly have they learned the lesson of discretion. 
In a little hollow of the copse a dying crow lay 
prone upon the ground. At intervals he would 
struggle and gasp in a spasmodic way. When I 
gently moved him with my cane, he grasped it with 
his claws and held it quite firmly. I put the stick 
to his large black beak. He took hold of it feebly, 
ready to defend himself even with his last gasp, for 
that it proved to be; he lay over and died the next 
