THE SONG SPARROW 69 



she seemed flitting about aimlessly, carrying 

 straws from place to place just to amuse herself. 

 When I came to watch her closely to learn the 

 place of her nest, she seemed to suspect my in- 

 tention, and made many little feints and move- 

 ments calculated to put me off my track. But 

 I would not be misled, and presently had her 

 secret. The male did not assist her at all, but 

 sang much of the time in an apple-tree or upon 

 the fence, on the other side of the house. 



The song sparrow nearly always builds upon 

 the ground, but my little neighbor laid the foun- 

 dations of her domicile a foot or more above the 

 soil. And what a mass of straws and twigs she 

 did collect together ! How coarse and careless 

 and aimless at first, a mere lot of rubbish 

 dropped upon the tangle of dry limbs; but 

 presently how it began to refine and come into 

 shape in the centre ! till there was the most ex- 

 quisite hair-lined cup set about by a chaos of 

 coarse straws and branches. What a process of 

 evolution ! The completed nest was foreshadowed 

 by the first stiff straw ; but how far off is yet 

 that dainty casket with its complement of speck- 

 led eggs ! The nest was so placed that it had for 

 canopy a large, broad, drooping leaf of yellow 

 dock. This formed a perfect shield against both 

 sun and rain, while it served to conceal it from 



