206 BIRDS'-NESTING. 



we were in quest of. They had food in their beaks, 

 and, as we paused, showed great signs of alarm, in- 

 dicating that the nest was in the immediate vicinity. 

 This was enough. We would pause here and find 

 this nest, anyhow. To make a sure thing of it, we 

 determined to watch the parent birds till we had 

 wrung from them their secret. So we doggedly 

 crouched down and watched them, and they watched 

 us. It was diamond cut diamond. But as we felt 

 constrained in our movements, desiring, if possible, 

 to keep so quiet that the birds would, after a while, 

 see in us only two harmless stumps or prostrate logs, 

 we had much the worst of it. The mosquitoes were 

 quite taken with our quiet, and knew us from logs 

 and stumps in a moment. Neither were the birds 

 deceived, not even when we tried the Indian's tactics, 

 and plumed ourselves with green branches. Ah, the 

 suspicious creatures, how they watched us with the 

 food in their beaks, abstaining for one whole hour 

 from ministering that precious charge which other- 

 wise would have been visited every moment ! Quite 

 near us they would come at times, between us and 

 the nest, eying us so sharply. Then they would 

 move off, and apparently try to forget our presence. 

 Was it to deceive us, or to persuade himself and mate 

 that there was no serious cause for alarm, that the 

 male would now and then strike up in full song and 

 move off to some distance through the trees ? But 

 the mother-bird did not allow herself to lose sight of 

 us at all, and both birds, after carrying the food in 



