86 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



Sometimes snakes get possession of the nests of 

 birds,* particularly of the woodpecker and the 

 parroquet. Mr. Gosse, speaking of the yellow- 

 bellied parroquet, in the Birds of Jamaica, says, 

 " The precaution of the poor bird in selecting a 

 locality in the trunk of a tree, and her perseverance 

 in burrowing into so solid a structure, are not 

 sufficient to secure her safety or that of her young. 

 The aperture by which she herself enters and 

 departs affords also entrance to a subtle and 

 voracious enemy the yellow boa. A young bird- 

 nester, having once mounted to plunder the bird's 

 nest, thrust his arm into the hole, and felt 

 something soft at the bottom, which he guessed 

 might be the callow young. Hesitating, however, 

 to trust it, he thrust in a stick, and discovered, 

 to his discomfiture and terror, an enormous yellow 

 snake, about whose jaws the feathers of the 

 swallowed parroquet were still adhering, while 

 more of her plumage scattered in the nest 

 revealed her unhappy fate. The serpent instantly 

 darted down the tree ; and the astonished youth, 



* The Frontispiece to Part II. shows the contest between 

 a snake and the Ferruginous Thrush of America, for the pos- 

 session of the nest . 



