THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 77 



smooth piece of greensward. There was not a weed 

 or a shrub or anything whatever to conceal it or mark 

 its site. The structure was completed and incubation 

 had begun before I discovered what was going on. 

 "Well, well," I said, looking down upon the bird 

 almost at my feet, " this is going to the other extreme 

 indeed ; now, the cats will have you." The desper- 

 ate little bird sat there day after day, looking like a 

 brown leaf pressed down hi the short green grass. 

 As the weather grew hot, her position became very 

 trying. It was no longer a question of keeping the 

 eggs warm, but of keeping them from roasting. The 

 sun had no mercy on her, and she fairly panted in the 

 middle of the day. In such an emergency the male 

 robin has been known to perch above the sitting 

 female and shade her with his outstretched wings. 

 But in this case there was no perch for the male bird, 

 had he been disposed to make a sunshade of himself. 

 I thought to lend a hand in this direction myself, 

 and so stuck a leafy twig beside the nest. This was 

 probably an unwise interference ; it guided disaster 

 to the spot ; the nest was broken up, and the mother- 

 bird was probably caught, as I never saw her after- 

 ward. 



For several previous summers a pair of kingbirds 

 had reared, unmolested, a brood of young in an ap- 

 ple-tree, only a few yards from the house ; but dur- 

 ing this season disaster overtook them also. The 

 nest was completed, the eggs laid, and incubation had 

 just begun, when, one morning about sunrise, I heard 



