74 A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER. 



of solitary vireos had taken up their abode 

 on a wooded hillside, where they, or others 

 like them, had passed the previous sum- 

 mer, and one day I proposed to a friend 

 that we make it our business to search out 

 the nest. It proved to be not very difficult 

 of discovery, though, when we put our eyes 

 upon it, it appeared that we had walked 

 directly by it several times, all in sight as 

 it was, suspended from near the end of an 

 oak-tree branch, perhaps nine feet from the 

 ground. It contained five eggs, including 

 one of the cow-bird; but just as my com- 

 panion was about to let go the branch, 

 which he had been holding down for my 

 convenience, the end snapped, up went the 

 nest, and out jumped four of the eggs. We 

 were sorry, of course, but consoled our- 

 selves with the destruction of the parasite, 

 which otherwise would very likely have 

 been the death of the vireos' own offspring. 

 Meanwhile, the birds themselves took mat- 

 ters coolly. One of them fell to singing 

 as soon as we withdrew, while the other 

 flew to the nest, looked in, and without a 

 word resumed her seat. After all, the ac- 

 cident might turn out to be nothing worse 



