PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 169 
in a fit of desperation, and singing the lines of Mrs. 
Browning, — 
“ But I love you, sir; 
And when a woman says she loves a man, 
The man must hear her, though he love her not.” 
Ly. 
BIRD NURSERIES. 
A pIRD’s nest is a bedroom, dining-room, sitting- 
room, parlor, and nursery all in one; for there 
the young birds sleep, eat, rest, entertain their 
guests (if they ever have any), and receive their 
earliest training. Yet there is no doubt that in 
treating the nest as a nursery we make use of the 
aptest simile that could be chosen. ‘Those who 
have not given the matter special attention would 
scarcely suspect how many and varied are the in- 
terests that cluster around these dwellings of our little 
brothers and sisters of field and woodland. ‘The 
growth of the bantling family, their mental develop- 
ment, their deportment in the nest, their chirpings 
and chatterings, their way of beguiling the time, the 
length of their stay in their childhood home, — all 
these, and many other problems of equally absorbing 
interest, can be solved only by the closest surveil- 
lance. But it is no light task to watch a nest at 
close enough range to study the natural, unrestrained 
ways of the young birds. The fact is, in many, 
perhaps most, cases it cannot be done. 
