Bonasa Umbellus, Rex. 25 



plain buff-colored, and four of them were 

 marked with light-brown spots, and all 

 were smooth and snug-fitting in the nest. 

 Around about the nest she scratched some 

 dry, loose beech leaves which could be 

 whisked over the eggs in an instant with 

 one movement of her wings in event of 

 surprise by a marauder, and then, being 

 almost of the color of dead leaves herself, 

 she could hardly be seen when she snug- 

 gled cosily down over the eggs and drew 

 her head in closely. It seems too bad to 

 think that after all this pains the mother 

 bird might be discovered in her hiding 

 place, alone and unprotected as she was. 

 One evening a red fox trotted past, and 

 when near the nest he stopped and sniffed 

 the air, twisting the sharp tip of his nose 

 from one side to the other, and alternately 

 spreading and closing his whiskers, but he 

 could not quite locate the gentle prey, 

 and his attention was finally attracted 

 elsewhere by a little squeaking evening 

 mouse that had fallen from the soft cedar 

 bark nest in the wild grapevine near by. 

 The noiseless swoop of a great ogre- 



