FAR AND NEAR 



Ted. " She is in deep trouble, and she wants sym- 

 pathy and help." 



In a few minutes we heard her mate answer! and 

 presently the two birds came hurrying to the spot, 

 both with loaded beaks. They perched upon the 

 familiar limb above the site of the nest, and the mate 

 seemed to say, "My dear, what has happened to 

 you ? I can find that nest." And he dived down, and 

 brought up in the empty air just as the mother had 

 done. How he winnowed it with his eager wings! 

 how he seemed to bear on to that blank space ! His 

 mate sat regarding him intently, confident, I think, 

 that he would find the clew. But he did not. Baffled 

 and excited, he returned to the perch beside her. 

 Then she tried again, then he rushed down once 

 more, then they both assaulted the place, but it 

 would not give up its secret. They talked, they en- 

 couraged each other, and they kept up the search, 

 now one, now the other, now both together. Some- 

 tim<is they dropped down to within a few feet of the 

 entrance to the nest, and we thought they would 

 surely find it. No, their minds and eyes were in- 

 tent only upon that square foot of space where the 

 nest had been. Soon they withdrew to a large limb 

 many feet higher up, and seemed to say to them- 

 selves, "Well, it is not there, but it must be here 

 somewhere ; let us look about." A few minutes 

 elapsed, when we saw the mother bird spring from 

 her perch and go straight as an arrow to the nest. 



218 



