Three Tragical Bird-Romances 



r 



easy reach, I could teach her to let me stroke 

 her back, as I have taught other birds. 



Last night I made a tour of various nests at 

 midnight and found all the mothers sitting, of 

 course; but unexpectedly I aroused no males 

 by disturbing these females. Could a small 

 marauder have ravaged without resistance? or 

 did silently watchful cock-birds perceive my 

 friendliness? I regret to say I think the for- 

 mer was the case. They were sound asleep some- 

 where else. 



July 1. The male of my interesting pair of 

 robins spends most of his time in the dead top 

 of a large tree, about one hundred feet in an 

 air-line from his home. In this old birch, 

 which is a house of call for the winged people 

 of the whole neighborhood, Cock Robin has 

 a particular perch whence he can see his nest; 

 and near him, on the outermost tip of an ex- 

 tended dry twig, sits most of the time a hum- 

 mingbird, no doubt in view of his family 

 treasures somewhere on the wooded Rimrocks 

 hillside. 



