A BIRD PILFERER 185 



ing on the next tree to watch her while she 

 added it to the mass. 



Instead of guarding the nest-maker, the 

 event proved that he should have guarded the 

 nest, for alas ! others who wanted nesting ma- 

 terial were about. Attracted one morning by 

 the flutter of wings, I glanced over to the elm 

 branch, and saw to my astonishment a small 

 bird hovering before the unfinished cradle. 

 While I looked he or was it she? 

 snatched at it, once, twice, three times, 

 and at the third time brought out a small 

 bunch of fibres, with which he or she 

 flew away. I snatched up my glass, but the 

 small thief was too nimble for me. She was 

 out of sight before I could catch her. 



I watched, however, for the return of the 

 pilferer, and in due time I had her. She 

 waited quietly on a neighboring apple-tree 

 till the builder had woven another load of 

 material into her hammock and gone, and 

 then approaching cautiously, she repeated her 

 sly theft. It was a chebec. Afterwards I 

 traced her home and found a nearly finished 

 nest in an apple-tree near the barn, far away 

 from the oriole's neighborhood. Three or 



