BIRDS-NESTING 185 



Yet this was, no doubt, what kept the parent birds 

 away from the nest. The clamor the young would 

 have set up on the approach of the old with food 

 would have exposed everything. 



After a time I felt sure I knew within a few feet 

 where the nest was concealed. Indeed, I thought 

 I knew the identical bush. Then the birds ap- 

 proached each other again and grew very confiden- 

 tial about another locality some rods below. This 

 puzzled us, and, seeing the whole afternoon might be 

 spent in this manner, and the mystery unsolved, we 

 determined to change our tactics and institute a thor- 

 ough search of the locality. This procedure soon 

 brought things to a crisis, for, as my companion 

 clambered over a log by a little hemlock, a few yards 

 from where we had been sitting, with a cry of alarm 

 out sprang the young birds from their nest in the 

 hemlock, and, scampering and fluttering over the 

 leaves, disappeared in different directions. This 

 brought the parent birds on the scene in an agony 

 of alarm. Their distress was pitiful. They threw 

 themselves on the ground at our very feet, and flut- 

 tered, and cried, and trailed themselves before us, 

 to draw us away from the place, or distract our at- 

 tention from the helpless young. I shall not forget 

 the male bird, how bright he looked, how sharp the 

 contrast as he trailed his painted plumage there on 

 the dry leaves. Apparently he was seriously dis- 

 abled. He would start up as if exerting every mus- 

 cle to fly away, but no use; down he would come, 

 with a helpless, fluttering motion, before he had 



