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196 



AMERICA N ORNI THOLOGY. 



housekeeping cares, and soon the soft walls encircled two diminutive 

 white eggs, no larger than a field bean. For two weeks the patient mother 

 sheltered them with her soft feathers, entirely oblivious of the loving 

 scrutiny of her interested admirers behind the blinds. Nor was she 

 frightened from her post of duty by invaders beneath the tree, but would 

 slowly move her head to and fro with the regular swing of a pendulum 

 till the intruder disappeared. 



Daily she fluffed up the downy 

 bed with her feet, and daily she 

 glued fresh bits of lichen on the 

 outside of her dwelling, after sal- 

 lying forth as before for the 

 mysterious adhesive matter. She 

 invariably alighted upon the 

 nest, not upon the side walls. 

 Whenever she left the nest she 

 would apparently pull up the lin- 

 ing around the eggs to keep them 

 warm, and even after the coming 

 of the little ones would pull up 

 the soft wool blanket about 

 them. 



The first day of July the baby 

 birds emerged from their white 

 prison houses, "featherless bi- 

 peds," with short yellow bills, 

 looking much like little grey 

 grubs, no larger than the nail of 

 my little finger. It seemed that 

 not even a mother's love and 

 faith could see promise of the 

 wondrous possibilities they con- 

 tained. The babies grew and 

 grew, but not until two and a 

 half weeks had elapsed were they able to raise their tiny heads above the 

 edge of the nest and peer into the wonderful world outside. 



One morning when our wee friends were about tuo v\eeksold, grandpa, 

 desirous of a close acquaintance, decided to make them a friendly call. In 

 spite of his three score and sixteen years, he bravely mounted chair, box, 

 and plank, and presented his compliments to the occupants of the nest, 

 but what they said to him, or what he said to them, they have never 

 divulged. July twenty-second when these infants \\ere just three weeks 



