136 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



it to us, but that did no good. She did confine 

 herself to a radius of about three rods, but select- 

 ing saplings at extreme points flew from one to 

 the other as she inspected us, all the while wag- 

 ging her tail nervously up and down and keeping 

 up the monotonous smacking. 



Finding her as incorrigible as the mosquitoes, 

 and realizing the approach of the dinner hour, 

 my friend and I set out for home. But in our 

 case the gods favored the cowardly, for, as we 

 were brandishing our maple twigs in the faces of 

 pursuing punkies and mosquitoes, we suddenly 

 started up the little family we had been hunting 

 for. 



They ran out from the leaves under our feet, 

 scudding off in all directions. My two dogs 

 pounced after them, and we flew in terror after 

 the dogs, but Balder's big jaws had nearly en- 

 gulfed them before we had dragged him off. In 

 the midst of the confusion the terrified mother flew 

 to the ground and began trailing in a pitifully 

 excited way. She spread out her wings and tail, 

 dragging them along the earth as if helpless. On 

 finding that we would not accept that decoy, and 

 seeing that her little ones had hidden away under 

 the leaves, she tried another plan and walked once 

 slowly back and forth for about a rod on the 

 side away from her young. Having, as she sup- 

 posed, completely diverted our attention by these 

 imaginative ruses, as the dogs were perfectly 



