72 THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 



bers, to say nothing of their danger from hawks 

 and owls. But of those that do return, what perils 

 beset their nests, even in the most favored local- 

 ities ! The cabins of the early settlers, when the 

 country was swarming with hostile Indians, were not 

 surrounded by such dangers. The tender households 

 of the birds are not only exposed to hostile Indians 

 in the shape of cats and collectors, but to numer- 

 ous murderous and bloodthirsty animals, against 

 whom they have no defense but concealment. They 

 lead the darkest kind of pioneer life, even in our 

 gardens and orchards, and under the walls of our 

 houses. Not a day or a night passes, from the time 

 the eggs are laid till the young are flown, when the 

 chances are not greatly in favor of the nest being 

 rifled and its contents devoured, by owls, skunks, 

 minks, and coons at night, and by crows, jays, squir- 

 rels, weasels, snakes, and rats during the day. In- 

 fancy, we say, is hedged about by many perils ; but 

 the infancy of birds is cradled and pillowed in peril. 

 An old Michigan settler told me that the first six 

 children that were born to him died; malaria and 

 teething invariably carried them off when they had 

 reached a certain age ; but other children were born, 

 the country improved, and by and by the babies 

 weathered the critical period, and the next six lived 

 and grew up. The birds, too, would no doubt perse- 

 vere six times and twice six times, if the season were 

 long enough, and finally rear their family, but the 

 waning summer cuts them short, and but few species 



