ORCHARD SECRETS 



about. It was interesting to speculate as to whether 

 or not he understood what kept his mate there. 

 This was doubtless their second brood. A month 

 earlier I had discovered a junco's nest under the 

 roots by the wooded roadside, on the summit of one 

 of the Catskill ranges. As I paused to wipe my brow, 

 the mother bird slid out from the bank only a step 

 from me and went trailing her plumage across the 

 road. The nest was placed nearly a foot under the 

 interlacing roots of the trees. 



The gentle divinities safeguarded my bird of the 

 beech woods, and her brood was successfully 

 launched. 



I am interested in birds' nests which I do not find, 

 but of which I have only a hint. One July day a 

 fully fledged rose-breasted grosbeak, evidently a 

 good deal bewildered by his first trip in the world, 

 came into our veranda and clung to the rafters 

 above our heads. The male grosbeak was following 

 him in an anxious state of mind and alighted in a 

 near-by tree. I took my cane and, gently insinuat- 

 ing it under the young bird, induced him to let go 

 the rafters and cling to it. Then I carried him to the 

 open and gave him a chance again to try his wings. 

 The parent bird followed him till both were lost 

 from sight. I hunted the orchard over in vain for 

 the nest. It was probably in the woods above or 

 along some bushy fence-row. The rose-breast is 

 such a rare and striking bird that the incident makes 

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