106 PASSERES. TROCIIILIDjE. 



minutes, we found her on the nest. Sam watched 

 sometime vainly with the insect-net; but as I 

 thought, if I could secure her in a cage with her 

 nest, the claims of her young would probably 

 awaken her attention more than the mere un- 

 hatched eggs had done the former one, we pro- 

 ceeded to the tree at night with a lantern. The 

 noise and shaking of the tree, however, had again 

 alarmed her, (at least so we concluded,) for she was 

 not on the nest when reached. The next morning 

 Sam had occasion to pass twice by the grape-tree, 

 but at neither time was the bird on the nest. Still 

 suspecting nothing, we went after breakfast, to 

 set a noose of horse-hair on the nest, a common 

 artifice of the negro boys, to capture small birds 

 when sitting. On mounting to set it, however, 

 Sam discovered that the nest was quite empty, no 

 trace of the unfledged young being left. It is pro- 

 bable that the bird, annoyed at being watched, had 

 removed them in her beak, a thing not without 

 precedent. Sam assured me, that if a Bald-pate 

 Pigeon be sitting on a nest containing young, and 

 be alarmed by a person climbing the tree, so as 

 to be driven from the nest, twice in succession, 

 you may look for the young the next day, in vain. 



In June I found a nest of the same species on a 

 shrub or young tree in the Cotta-wood. It con- 

 tained one egg; I looked at it, and went a little 

 way farther. In a few minutes I returned ; the 

 bird was sitting, the head and tail oddly projecting 

 from the nest, as usual. I hoped to approach with- 

 out alarming it, but its eye was upon me, and 



