140 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



The parent birds attracted my attention 

 by appearing with food in their beaks, and 

 by seeming much put out. Yet so wary were 

 they of revealing the locality of their brood, 

 or even of the precise tree that held them, 

 that I lurked around over an hour without 

 gaining a point on them. Finally a bright 

 and curious boy who accompanied me se- 

 creted himself under a low, projecting rock 

 close to the tree in which we supposed the 

 nest to be, while I moved off around the 

 mountain-side. It was not long before the 

 youth had their secret. The tree, which was 

 low and wide branching, and overrun with 

 lichens, appeared at a cursory glance to con- 

 tain not one dry or decayed limb. Yet there 

 was one a few feet long, in which, when my 

 eyes were piloted thither, I detected a small 

 round orifice. 



As my weight began to shake the branches, 

 the consternation of both old and young was 

 great. The stump of a limb that held the 

 nest was about three inches thick, and at the 

 bottom of the tunnel was excavated quite to 

 the bark. With my thumb I broke in the 

 thin wall, and the young, which were full- 

 fledged, looked out upon the world for the 

 first time. Presently one of them, with a 



