BIRDS'-NES TS. 1 1 5 



their brood, or even of the precise tree that held them, 

 that I lurked around over an hour without gaining a 

 point on them. Finally a bright and curious boy who 

 accompanied me secreted himself under a low, project- 

 ing rock close to the tree in which we supposed the nest 

 to be, while I moved off around the mountain-side. It 

 was not long before the youth had their secret. The tree, 

 which was low and wide branching, and overrun with 

 lichens, appeared at a cursory glance to contain not one 

 dry or decayed limb. Yet there was one a few feet long, 

 in which, when my eyes were piloted thither, I detected 

 a small round orifice. 



As my weight began to shake the branches, the con- 

 sternation of both old and young was great. The stump 

 of a limb that held the nest was about three inches thick, 

 and at the bottom of the tunnel was excavated quite to 

 the bark. With my thumb I broke in the thin wall, and 

 the young, which were full-fledged, looked out upon the 

 world for the first time. Presently one of them, with a 

 significant chirp, as much as to say, " It is time we were 

 out of this," began to climb up toward the proper en- 

 trance. Placing himself in the hole, he looked around 

 without manifesting any surprise at the grand scene that 

 lay spread out before him. He was taking his bearings 

 and determining how far he could trust the power of his 

 untried wings to take him out of harm's way. After a 

 moment's pause, with a loud chirrup, he launched out 

 and made tolerable headway. The others rapidly fol 

 lowed. Each one, as it started upward, from a sudden 



