86 The Building of the Nest 



cars by a zoological garden on the bank of 

 a river, and has been impressed with the 

 abundant illustration of birds' intelligence to 

 be noticed there. The crows have learned 

 that fire-arms are not allowed to be used any- 

 where near, and so they fearlessly hop about 

 not only the enclosure of the garden, but the 

 many tracks of the railroad just outside, 

 showing no timidity even when the locomo- 

 tives rush by. Stranger still, wild ducks 

 gather in the river almost directly under the 

 railroad bridge, and do not always dive out 

 of sight as the trains pass by, and I have 

 never seen them take wing, even when the 

 whistle blew the quick, short, penetrating 

 danger signal. 



To come back to their nests : birds have 

 other enemies than man to guard against, and 

 so are never in a hurry in the matter of deter- 

 mining where to build. Time and again a loca- 

 tion has been discovered to be unsuitable after 

 a nest has been commenced, and the structure 

 abandoned. I have observed this many times. 

 Indeed, my own curiosity has led the birds 

 to move, they not quite approving my con- 

 stant watching of what was going on. I well 

 remember seating myself once in a shady 



