BIRD ENEMIES. 227 



fledged. In a state of nature this probably never 

 happens ; at least I have never seen or heard of it 

 happening to nests placed in trees or under rocks. 

 It is the curse of civilization falling upon the birds 

 which come too near man. The vermin, or the germ 

 of the vermin, is probably conveyed to the nest in 

 hen's feathers, or in straws and hairs picked up about 

 the barn or hen-house. A robin's nest upon your 

 porch or in your summer-house will occasionally be- 

 come an intolerable nuisance from the swarms upon 

 swarms of minute vermin with which it is filled. The 

 parent birds stem the tide as long as they can, but 

 are often compelled to leave the young to their ter- 

 rible fate. 



One season a phoebe-bird built on a projecting 

 stone under the eaves of the house, and all appeared 

 to go well till the young were nearly fledged, when 

 the nest suddenly became a bit of purgatory. The 

 birds kept their places in their burning bed till they 

 could hold out no longer, when they leaped forth and 

 fell dead upon the ground. 



After a delay of a week or more, during which I 

 imagine the parent birds purified themselves by every 

 means known to them, the couple built another nest a 

 few yards from the first, and proceeded to rear a sec- 

 ond brood ; but the new nest developed into the same 

 bed of torment that the first did, and the three young 

 birds, nearly ready to fly, perished as they sat within 

 it. The parent birds then left the place as if it had 

 been accursed. 



