ORCHAKD SECRETS 



bottom of it and lying so closely and so still that 

 they seemed a part of the nest. They made no sign, 

 their eyes were closed, they flattened themselves 

 down, and clmig to the nest with silent tenacity. 

 I was in a "pickle." What could I do toward 

 undoing what I had so rashly done.? The mother 

 bird now appeared, and in the near-by branches 

 called out in shy, plaintive tones, '*Pi-ty, pi-ty," 

 but did not come into the tree where her nest had 

 been. 



After some delay, with the aid of a ladder, I 

 placed the nest in a forked branch four or five feet 

 below the original position. I had serious doubts 

 about the success of the experiment as not once 

 during the two or more hours that I was on the look- 

 out did either of the parent birds enter the tree. But 

 next morning I found all four of the young birds 

 warm and hugging the nest as closely as ever. Not 

 once during the days that followed did I see the pa- 

 rent birds approach the nest or show themselves in 

 near-by trees. Still the young grew and presently 

 their backs and heads began to show above the rim 

 of the nest, till finally I found one of them perched 

 on its rim. It was not many hours after that before 

 the nest was empty, and later the young were fol- 

 lowing their parents about the fields from thistle to 

 thistle, uttering that childlike note which sounds 

 like "Ba-by, ba-by," a sound I knew so well in late 

 summer when I was a boy on the old farm. 



107 



