NATURE AND HER HARMONIES. 33 



This year the flood came. The birds had hatched, and 

 four little downy, yellow, gaping mouths could be seen 

 in the nest. The water commenced rising very rapidly in 

 the sink. The birds became uneasy ; they fluttered and 

 screamed, and made a wonderful to-do. At last one of them 

 flew down to the last twig above the rising water. He sat 

 there looking closely at it till it rose about his feet, and then, 

 suddenly, with a loud chirp, flew away, followed by the 

 mate. 



We thought they had deserted their young. " Unnatural 

 creatures !" I exclaimed. And if a gun had been convenient, I 

 think I should have had no scruple in shooting them. 



In about half-an-hour the water had risen to the bottom 

 of the nest ! when, 'suddenly to my joy and penitent shame, 

 the birds were back, flew down into the nest and off again ! 

 each bearing a young one. They were not gone a minute, 

 when, straight as the flight of an arrow, and as swift, they 

 were back, the other two little ones were carried off, and in 

 a minute the nest was afloat. 



Close calculation, that ! I followed in the direction they 

 went, and, after some search, found the callow family safe 

 and snug in an old nest, which they had prepared for their 

 reception, as soon as they became convinced the water must 

 reach them. Instinct must have wide play, indeed, to ac- 

 count for this. 



I saw a large, heavy cockroach, fully an inch long, fall into 

 the web of a small spider. The great weight of the insect, 

 with the height from which it fell, was sufficient to tear 

 through the web, and it would have fallen clear, but that the 

 long, sharp claws, which arm the extremities of the hindmost 

 pair of legs, gathered a sufficient quantity of the fibres as 

 they rolled down the net, to sustain the weight of the cock- 

 roach, who thus hung dangling by the heels, head down- 

 wards, and the body free. 



Out rushed the little spider, not so large as a cherry-stone. 

 What could it do with such a monster ? You shall see. 



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