Three .Tragical Bird-Romances 



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of course, it is a trick to cheat foxes, snakes 

 and similar enemies first of all. 



I was obliged to go away for a few days at 

 this time, and during my absence a tremendous 

 thunderstorm deluged the locality, and filled 

 me with anxiety, when I heard of it, for the 

 safety of my little friends. As I expected, the 

 robins' nest by the kitchen had been sawed in 

 two by the swaying of the alien limb. The pair 

 had then chosen a more secure crotch in another 

 tree, where a very poor specimen of a nest, 

 composed mainly of staghorn " moss " and 

 totally lacking in the customary mortar of 

 mud, was already completed and occupied. The 

 female of this pair was an undersized and ap- 

 parently immature bird, but her mate was one 

 of the reddest, grandest-looking robins ever 

 seen. Here was a fine example of the Wallace- 

 Darwin theory of sexual selection ; but it seemed 

 as though it ought to have been his fortune to 

 be beguiled by a better mate. Such a pairing 

 would seem to vitiate the required result. 



It was probably the inexperience of this 



*$ 63 fo> 



