64 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



brothers," were incited by prospective bribes of ginger-bread 

 or candy to join the hue and cry of hunters for the nests of 

 the poor mocking birds. 



Though disgusted at all this, and most seriously alarmed 

 lest they should be driven away, I myself continued, never- 

 theless, steadily and patiently to watch the motions and 

 haunts of the birds, day and night, with the hope of securing 

 a nest for myself. They were something to me aye, of 

 greater value than a Prince's ransom ! they brought to me a 

 world of music the minstrelsy of earth and air in one 

 full throat! I had a right to draw them near me, that 

 they might fill my soul with gladness! Such was the 

 logic with which I justified myself over the heads of other 

 sinners ! 



However specious and egotistical my logic may appear, 

 my zeal was by no means impaired by any doubts as to its 

 force and truth. Day by day I prowled the meadows, 

 hedge-rows and gardens, carefully concealing my object un- 

 der the pretence of gunning, and taking special care to ad- 

 minister an awful warning to the little, freebooters aforesaid, 

 whom I might chance to meet in the same search, upon the 

 evil consequences attending bird-nesting in general ; becom- 

 ing even pathetic towards the middle of my lecture, and not 

 unfrequently winding up, on signs of obduracy becoming too 

 apparent, with heavy threats of personal vengeance if I de- 

 tected them in destroying a single nest. 



Though I had thus constituted myself their champion, the 

 poor birds had not, in all their enemies combined, so much 

 to fear, so far as their liberty was concerned, as in my single 

 self. I knew the sort of locality in which they might be ex- 

 pected to build, and there was not a solitary thorn tree, low 

 clump of thicket or matted wild vine that escaped examina- 

 tion if it stood somewhat apart from every other growth 

 for the bird, with us, always selected such places for its nest. 



I know its habits are very different in the extreme South, 

 where I have seen the nests placed openly upon the top of 



