IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD. 185 



but I suspect the bird was only prospecting, and 

 had not even begun to work. 



The little German Gretehen became interested 

 in the search for the titmouse's nest, and told me 

 that a gray bird had built in an oak in front of 

 her house. I rode right over to see it, but found 

 the gray bird a female Mexican bluebird, whose 

 brilliant ultramarine mate sat on the fence of the 

 vegetable garden in plain sight. The children 

 kept better watch of the nest after that, and a 

 few days later, when in my attic study, I heard 

 the tramp of a horse, and, looking out, found my 

 little friend under the window, come to tell me 

 that the eggs had hatched. When her older sis- 

 ter came for the washing I asked her if she had 

 seen the old birds go to the nest, and she said, 

 " Yes ; one was blue and the other gray." 



When I rode up again, the young had grown 

 so that from the saddle I could look down the 

 hole and see their big mouths and bristling pin- 

 feathers. The mother bird was about the tree, 

 and her soft dull coloring toned in well with the 

 gray bark. The bluebirds had a double front 

 door, and went in one side to come out the other. 

 I saw both of them feed the young, the male fly- 

 ing into the hole straight from the fence post. 



It seemed such hard work finding worms out 

 in the hot sun that I wondered if birds' eyes ever 

 ached from the intentness of their search, and if 

 there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the in- 



