BIRDS'-NESTING 187 



sometimes its very openness hides it ; the light itself 

 seems to conceal it. Then the birds build anew each 

 year, and so always avail themselves of the present 

 and latest combination of leaves and screens, of light 

 and shade. What was very well concealed one sea- 

 son, may be quite exposed the next. 



Going a-fishing or a-berrying is a good introduc- 

 tion to the haunts of the birds, and to their nesting- 

 places. You put forth your hand for the berries, 

 and there is a nest; or your tread by the creeks 

 starts the sandpiper or the water-thrush from the 

 ground where its eggs are concealed, or some shy 

 wood- warbler from a bush. One day, fishing down 

 a deep wooded gorge, my hook caught on a limb 

 overhead, and on pulling it down I found I had 

 missed my trout, but had caught a hummingbird's 

 nest. It was saddled on the limb as nicely as if it 

 had been a grown part of it. 



Other collectors beside the oologists are looking 

 for birds '-nests, the squirrels and owls and jays 

 and crows. The worst depredator in this direction I 

 know of is the fish crow, and I warn him to keep 

 off my premises, and charge every gunner to spare 

 him not. He is a small sneak-thief, and will rob 

 the nest of every robin, wood thrush, and oriole he 

 can come at. I believe he fishes only when he is 

 unable to find birds' eggs or young birds. The gen- 

 uine crow, the crow with the honest "caw," "caw," 

 I have never caught in such small business, though 

 the kingbird makes no discrimination between them, 

 but accuses both alike. 



