256 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



his ways please me. As the homely phrase is, I 

 like the cut of his jib. His plaintive call is never 

 wearisome, though he is exceedingly free with it. 

 And I have grown to like him and his mate the 

 better because they are fond of certain places 

 where I myself am given to spending now and 

 then an idle hour. There are four abandoned 

 shanties in different parts of the desert, in the 

 shade of which I often rest ; and every one of 

 them has its pair of Say phoebes. I saw the 

 birds with building materials in their bills, and 

 began by expecting to find the nest inside the 

 open building ; but by and by I discovered that 

 they liked best of all a site down in a well ! It 

 seems a safe position to begin with as long as 

 the nest contains nothing but eggs ; but I ask 

 myself about the danger to the little ones when 

 they become big enough to be uneasy. If they 

 are anything like young robins, for example, a 

 pitiful share of them must perish sixty feet 

 underground. However, the birds may be pre- 

 sumed to understand their own business better 

 than any outsider can teach it to them; and 

 they unquestionably prefer the well. Of the 

 four pairs just mentioned, three have built in 

 that position (the wells, it should be understood, 

 are not stoned), and the fourth would have done 

 likewise, I dare say, only that the well in their 



