100 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



mother 'possum's nest in the hollow of a tree or 

 among the rocks. Wherever obtained, it seemed 

 to be exactly what Mrs. Chicadee wanted, judging 

 from the number of loads she had brought. 



In all it took four days to build the Chicadee's 

 nest, and when completed it was the softest and 

 coziest of homes. Some sheep's wool and some 

 soft, silky plant-down had been used with which to 

 finish it. It was a suitable receptacle for the tiny, 

 speckled, pinky eggs that were placed in it, seven of 

 them being hidden in the soft bed of wool and 

 down. On these the old birds sat by day and by 

 night, seldom absenting themselves from the self- 

 imposed task that must at best have been tedious. 

 Whenever I visited Dee-dee as she sat in the dark 

 obscurity of the hollow stump, she would look up 

 in an inquiring way, her whole appearance seeming 

 to beg that I should not disturb or injure her. Was 

 she not, in the performance of her duty, carrying out 

 the great law of the propagation of species ? Know- 

 ing full well how helpless she was, penned up in 

 the partly decayed stump, she placed herself and 

 her precious eggs entirely at my mercy. Needless 

 to say she was not disturbed in any way. On 

 holidays, when thoughtless boys roamed the wood, 

 bent only on having what they considered " a good 

 time," sparing nothing that came their way, I 

 would stay within sight of the Chicadee's nest to 

 see that no harm should come to it. No boys 

 would have been likely to discover the nest, simply 

 because they would think it improbable that any 

 bird would build in such a decayed, fungus-covered 

 stump, but in passing they might have pushed 



