A BIR&S-NEST HUNTER. 73 



well for their cunning and endurance that 

 they escape utter extermination. 



This phase of the subject is especially 

 forced upon the attention of observers like 

 myself, who search for nests, not mischiev- 

 ously, nor even with the laudable design of 

 the scientific investigator, but solely as a 

 means of promoting friendly acquaintance. 

 We may not often witness the catastrophe 

 itself ; but as we go our daily rounds, now 

 peeping under the bank or into the bush, 

 and now climbing the tree, to see how some 

 timid friend of ours is faring, we are only 

 too certain to come upon first one home 

 and then another which has been rifled 

 and deserted since our last visit ; till we 

 begin to wonder why the defenseless and 

 persecuted creatures do not turn pessimists 

 outright, and relinquish forever their at- 

 tempt to " be fruitful, and multiply, and 

 replenish the earth." 



Thinking of these things anew, now that 

 I am reviewing my last spring's experi- 

 ences, it is doubly gratifying to recall that 

 I robbed only one nest during the entire 

 season, and that not of malice, but by ac- 

 cident. It happened on this wise. A couple 



