158 Bird Comrades 



received a fatal blow from an enemy, and had just had 

 strength enough left to come home to die. Her mate was 

 gone. He was doubtless unable to bear the ghastly sight 

 of his dead companion on her nest. 



A little field sparrow came to a tragical end in a dif- 

 ferent way. I found his body dangling among the bushes 

 on a bank. Two small but tough grapevine twigs grow- 

 ing out horizontally and close together formed a .very 

 acute angle, and this was the trap in which the innocent 

 bird was caught. In some way one of his legs had slipped 

 between the branches, the angle of which became more 

 acute, of course, toward the apex. Thus the more he 

 struggled the more tightly his tarsus became wedged in 

 the trap, the foot preventing it from slipping through. 

 To think of pushing his leg backward, and so releasing 

 himself, was beyond the poor bird's cerebral power; so 

 he fluttered until exhausted, then dangled there to die of 

 starvation. The place being very secluded, no predatory 

 beast or fowl had found the little corpse. 



If there were only some way of protecting the nests 

 of our beautiful and useful birds of the wildwood, what 

 a boon it would be to men and fowls! So many nests 

 come to grief that one wonders sometimes that any brood 

 is ever reared. During a recent spring, with exhausting 

 toil and patience, I found the nests of several shy wood- 

 land birds the Kentucky, the hooded, and the creep- 

 ing warblers all of them real discoveries for me. I 

 promised myself a rare treat in watching the development 

 of the nurslings from babyhood to youth. Alas! all the 



