190 GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 



to scold and to circle about you as soon as you 

 enter the meadow where his nest is so well hid- 

 den. He does not wait to show his anxiety till 

 you are almost upon it. By no action of his 

 can you get a clue as to its exact whereabouts. 



The song-sparrow nearly always builds upon 

 the ground, but my little neighbor of last July 

 laid the foundations of her domicile a foot or 

 more above the soil. And what a mass of 

 straws and twigs she did collect together! 

 How coarse and careless and aimless at first; a 

 mere lot of rubbish dropped upon the tangle of 

 dry limbs, but presently how it began to refine 

 and come into shape in the centre! till there 

 was the most exquisite hair-lined cup set about 

 by a chaos of coarse straws and branches. 

 What a process of evolution! The completed 

 nest was foreshadowed by the first stiff straw, 

 but how far off is yet that dainty casket with 

 its complement of speckled eggs ! The nest was 

 so placed that it had for canopy a large broad, 

 drooping leaf of yellow dock. This formed a 

 perfect shield against both sun and rain, while it 

 served to conceal it from any curious eyes from 

 above, — from the cat, for instance, prowling 

 along the top of the wall. Before the eggs had 

 hatched the docken leaf wilted and dried and 

 fell down upon the nest. But the mother bird 

 managed to insinuate herself beneath it, and 

 went on with her brooding all the same. 



Then I arranged an artificial cover of leaves 

 and branches which shielded her charge till they 

 had flown away. A mere trifle was this little 



