My Boyhood and Youth 



share; for after the young grew strong, one 

 would get his head out of the door-hole and try 

 to hold possession of it to meet the food-laden 

 parents. How hard they worked to support their 

 families, especially the red-headed and speckledy 

 woodpeckers and flickers; digging, hammering 

 on scaly bark and decaying trunks and branches 

 from dawn to dark, coming arid going at inter- 

 vals of a few minutes all the livelong day! 



We discovered a hen-hawk's nest on the top 

 of a tall oak thirty or forty rods from the shanty 

 and approached it cautiously. One of the pair 

 always kept watch, soaring in wide circles high 

 above the tree, and when we attempted to 

 climb it, the big dangerous-looking bird came 

 swooping down at us and drove us away. 



We greatly admired the plucky kingbird. In 

 Scotland our great ambition was to be good 

 fighters, and we admired this quality in the 

 handsome little chattering flycatcher that whips 

 all the other birds. He was particularly angry 

 when plundering jays and hawks came near 

 his home, and took pains to thrash them not 

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