86 THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 



little owl may have been the depredator ; the other, 

 in the woods, sent forth three young. This latter 

 nest was most charmingly and ingeniously placed. I 

 discovered it while in quest of pond-lilies, in a long, 

 deep, level stretch of water in the woods. A large 

 tree had blown over at the edge of the water, and its 

 dense mass of up-turned roots, with the black, peaty 

 soil filling the interstices, was like the fragment of a 

 wall several feet high, rising from the edge of the 

 languid current. In a niche in this earthy wall, and 

 visible and accessible only from the water, a phoebe 

 had built her nest and reared her brood. I paddled 

 my boat up and came alongside prepared to take the 

 family aboard. The young, nearly ready to fly, were 

 quite undisturbed by my presence, having probably 

 been assured that no danger need be apprehended 

 from that side. It was not a likely place for minks, 

 or they would not have been so secure. 



I noted but one nest of the wood pewee, and that, 

 too, like so many other nests, failed of issue. It was 

 saddled upon a small dry limb of a plane-tree that 

 stood by the roadside, about forty feet from the 

 ground. Every day for nearly a week as I passed 

 by I saw the sitting bird upon the nest. Then one 

 morning she was not in her place, and on examination 

 the nest proved to be empty robbed, I had no 

 doubt, by the red squirrels, as they were very abun- 

 dant in its vicinity, and appeared to make a clean 

 sweep of every nest. The wood pewee builds an ex- 

 quisite nest, shaped and finished as if cast in a mould. 



