54 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



the vine, seeking an entrance to the house. The 

 mother bird, after reflecting upon her ill luck 

 about a week, seemed to resolve to try a differ- 

 ent system of tactics, and to throw all appear- 

 ances of concealment aside. She built a nest a 

 few yards from the house, beside the drive, upon 

 a smooth piece of greensward. There was not a 

 weed or a shrub or anything whatever to conceal 

 it or mark its site. The structure was completed, 

 and incubation had begun, before I discovered 

 what was going on. " Well, well," I said, looking 

 down upon the bird almost at my feet, " this is go- 

 ing to the other extreme indeed ; now the cats 

 will have you." The desperate little bird sat there 

 day after day, looking like a brown leaf pressed 

 down in the short green grass. As the weather 

 grew hot, her position became very trying. It 

 was no longer a question of keeping the eggs 

 warm, but of keeping them from roasting. The 

 sun had no mercy on her, and she fairly panted 

 in the middle of the day. In such an emergency 

 the male robin has been known to perch above 

 the sitting female and shade her with his out- 

 stretched wings. But in this case there was no 

 perch for the male bird, had he been disposed to 

 make a sunshade of himself. I thought to lend a 

 hand in this direction myself, and so stuck a leafy 

 twig beside the nest. This was probably an un- 



