BIRD ENEMIES 207 



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 flycatchers, the bird which 

 says chebec, chehec, and is a small edition of the 

 pewecj one season built their nest where I had 

 them for many hours each day under my observa- 

 tion. The nest was a very snug and compact struc- 

 ture 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 apprehensive that he 

 would serve the flycatchers the same trick; so, as 

 I sat with my book in a summer-house near by, I 

 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 catbird perched upon the rim of the nest, hastily 

 devouring the eggs. I soon regretted my precipi- 

 tation in killing 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 flycatchers did what I 



