268 BESIDE THE GEE AT SALT LAKE. 



A lawn asoak is a curious sight, and always re- 

 minds me of Lanier's verses, 



"A thousand rivulets run 



'Twixt the roots of the soil ; the blades of the marsh grass 

 stir; 



.... and the currents cease to run, 

 And the sea and the marsh are one." 



The morning the lazulis were ten days old, 

 before I came out of the house, that happened 

 which so often puts an end to a study of bird 

 life, the nest was torn out of place and de- 

 stroyed, and the little family had disappeared. 

 The particulars will never be known. Whether 

 a nest-robbing boy or a hungry cat was the trans- 

 gressor, and whether the nestlings were carried 

 off or eaten, or had happily escaped, who can tell? 

 I could only judge by the conduct of the birds 

 themselves, and as they did not appear disturbed, 

 and continued to carry food, it is to be presumed 

 that part, if not all, of the brood was saved from 

 the wreck of their home. 



Happily, to console me in my sorrow for this 

 catastrophe, the lazuli was not the only bird to 

 be seen on the lawn, though his was the only 

 nest. I had for some time been greatly inter- 

 ested in the daily visits of a humming-bird, a 

 little dame in green and white, who had taken 

 possession of a honeysuckle vine beside the 

 door, claiming the whole as her own, and driv- 



