BIRD ENEMIES. 229 



which I at once understood, when I one day caught 

 her in the very act of going through a nest of eggs. 



A pair of the least fly-catchers, the bird which says 

 cJiebeque, chebeque, and is a small edition of the pewee, 

 one season built their nest where I had them for many 

 hours each day under my observation. The nest was 

 a very snug and compact structure placed in the forks 

 of a small maple about twelve feet from the ground. 

 The season before a red squirrel had harried the nest 

 of a wood-thrush in this same tree, and I was appre- 

 hensive that he would serve the fly-catchers the same 

 trick ; so, as I sat with my book in a summer-house 

 near by, 1 kept my loaded gun within easy reach. 

 One egg was laid, and the next morning, as I made 

 my daily inspection of the nest, only a fragment of 

 its empty shell was to be found. This I removed, 

 mentally imprecating the rogue of a red squirrel. 

 The birds were much disturbed by the event, but did 

 not desert the nest, as I had feared they would, but 

 after much inspection of it and many consultations 

 together, concluded, it seems, to try again. Two 

 more eggs were laid, when one day I heard the birds 

 utter a sharp cry, and on looking up I saw a cat-bird 

 perched upon the rim of the nest, hastily devouring 

 the eggs. I soon regretted my precipitation in kill- 

 ing her, because such interference is generally unwise. 

 It turned out that she had a nest of her own with five 

 eggs, in a spruce tree near my window. 



Then this pair of little fly-catchers did what I had 

 never seen birds do before ; they pulled the nest to 



