118 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



sudden. In other cases I have known the nest 

 entirely completed, and afterwards a fortnight or 

 more elapse before laying commenced. This last cir- 

 cumstance I have observed occasionally in the chaf- 

 finch, and had been led to suppose in such instances 

 that the nest from some cause had been deserted. 

 I passed it day after day, and found it exactly in 

 the same state, without any eggs in it. But it 

 proved in the end to be only a delay, from the cir- 

 cumstance of the nest not beins; needed sooner. 

 After an interval of longer or shorter duration, the 

 eggs were duly laid and the brood reared. I have 

 noticed the same habit in the tree-creeper." It 

 will be found interesting for us to devote the pre- 

 sent chapter to a sketch of the circumstances 

 which in various cases accompany this action, which 

 is the introduction of a new being into the kingdom 

 of terrestrial life. As may well be imagined, it is 

 a time of anxiety to the birds, who have now to 

 guard not merely their home, but their hopes of a 

 future family. Perhaps no instance of this anxiety 

 on the part of the parent birds has been told in a 

 more lively manner than that of the Canada goose 

 by Audubon. No sooner has the goose laid her 

 first egg, than her bold mate stands almost erect 



