A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



effect was enough like a white bird with red 

 wings to deceive any one not well acquainted 

 with bird life. Looking up to the bird the 

 chestnut sides resembled red wings. 



I sent the lady into an upper room, where 

 she could look down on her white bird, and 

 she soon returned, and laughingly said, " I 

 always knew that there were two sides to a 

 story, and now I have just learned that there 

 are two sides to a bird." 



May 27, 1902, five years after the fore- 

 going history was published, the same little 

 bird hopped to my feet for nesting material. 

 I gave her some cotton twine, cut to eight- 

 inch lengths, and she carried away two pieces. 

 She flew to a small hollow about twenty feet 

 south of my spring. I followed, and seated 

 on a small boulder, watched the nest build- 

 ing for the next two hours. I could reach out 

 and touch the bush that contained the nesting 

 material, but the little mother paid no atten- 

 tion to my presence, only to turn a bright 

 eye on me, after she had coiled a piece of 

 string or blade of grass in the bottom of the 

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