HARD TO IDENTIFY 99 



every time she went into her nest, but she 

 did it so deftly and daintily that this delicate 

 portiere was at the end as fresh as when she 

 began to use it. 



Determined to solve my puzzle, and in my 

 own way, without disturbing her, I settled 

 myself to watching that baby-house in the 

 moss. Hours every day I spent with eyes 

 fixed upon it. And this literally, for the 

 movements of the over-modest owner were so 

 silent and so rapid that it was only thus I 

 could be sure of seeing her. 



It may seem strange that a person accus- 

 tomed to studying birds, and familiar with 

 their ways, could not easily identify one who 

 passed in and out before her eyes fifty times 

 a day. But her movements were so irregu- 

 lar I could not calculate on them. She shot 

 out of her nest as if sent from a catapult, 

 plunging instantly into the thickest group of 

 young trees, while she returned in silence, 

 flitting like a shadow without a sound, from 

 which side I could never discover. Even after 

 she began to feed her nestlings, which she did 

 in a day or two, she still managed to avoid 

 giving me a satisfactory view. 



