AMONG MY TENANTS. 125 



they were joined by a noisy band of indignant 

 members of the blackbird clan. 



I watched this attack with great interest, not 

 knowing that shrikes were concerned in black- 

 bird matters, and also because it was welcome 

 news that one of these strange characters had 

 rented a lot of me. I made a note of the direction 

 my outlaw tenant took when driven ignominiously 

 home, and at my earliest convenience called. 

 Such cruel tales are told of his cold-blooded way 

 of impaling birds and beasts upon thorns and 

 barbed wires that one naturally looks upon him 

 as a monster ; but I found that he, like many 

 another villain, turns a gentle face to his nest. 



He had pitched his tent on the farthest outpost 

 of my ranch in a little bunch of willows, weeds, 

 and mustard long since converted into a well- 

 kept prune orchard. The nest, which was a big 

 round mass of sticks, was inside the willows in 

 a clump of dry stalks about six feet from the 

 ground. I had hardly found it before one of the 

 builders swooped down to it right before my eyes, 

 with the hardihood of one who fears no man ; 

 though it must be acknowledged that the shrikes, 

 like other birds on the ranch, were so used to 

 grazing horses they quite naturally took me for a 

 cattle herder. 



In this case Canello did not act as my ally. He 

 had been quiet and docile most of the morning, 

 but now was hungry and saw some grass he was 



