BIRD ENEMIES 205 



often swarm, and which kill the young before they 

 are fledged. In a state of nature this probably 

 never happens; at least I have never seen or heard 

 of it happening to nests placed in trees or under 

 rocks. It is the curse of civilization falling upon 

 the birds which come too near man. The vermin, 

 or the germ of the vermin, is probably conveyed to 

 the nest in hen's feathers, or in straws and hairs 

 picked up about the barn or hen-house. A robin's 

 nest upon your porch or in your summer-house will 

 occasionally become an intolerable nuisance from 

 the swarms upon swarms of minute vermin with 

 which it is filled. The parent birds stem the tide 

 as long as they can, but are often compelled to leave 

 the young to their terrible fate. 



One season a phoebe-bird built on a projecting 

 stone under the eaves of the house, and all appeared 

 to go well till the young were nearly fledged, when 

 the nest suddenly became a bit of purgatory. The 

 birds kept their places in their burning bed till they 

 could hold out no longer, when they leaped forth 

 and fell dead upon the ground. 



After a delay of a week or more, during which 

 I imagine the parent birds purified themselves by 

 every means known to them, the couple built an- 

 other nest a few yards from the first, and proceeded 

 to rear a second brood; but the new nest developed 

 into the same bed of torment that the first did, and 

 the three young birds, nearly ready to fly, perished 

 as they sat within it. The parent birds then left 

 the place as if it had been accursed. 



