BIRDS'-NESTING. 207 



their beaks a long time, would swallow it themselves. 

 Then they would obtain another morsel and appar- 

 ently approach very near the nest, when their caution 

 or prudence would come to their aid, and they would 

 swallow the food and hasten away. I thought the 

 young birds would cry out, but not a syllable from 

 them. Yet this was, no doubt, what kept the parent 

 birds away from the nest. The clamor the young 

 would have set up on the approach of the old with 

 food would have exposed everything. 



After a time I felt sure I knew within a few feet 

 where the nest was concealed. Indeed, I thought I 

 knew the identical bush. Then the birds approached 

 each other again and grew very confidential about 

 another locality some rods below. This puzzled us, 

 and seeing the whole afternoon might be spent in this 

 manner, and the mystery unsolved, we determined to 

 change our tactics and institute a thorough search of 

 the locality. This procedure soon brought things to 

 a crisis, for, as my companion clambered over a log, 

 by a little hemlock, a few yards from where we had 

 been sitting, with a cry of alarm out sprang the young 

 birds from their nest in the hemlock, and, scampeiiiig 

 and fluttering over the leaves, disappeared in different 

 directions. This brought the parent birds on the seem 

 \n an agony of alarm. Their distress was pitiful 

 They threw themselves on the ground at our verj 

 feet, and fluttered, and cried, and trailed themselvei 

 before us, to draw us away from the place, or distract 

 our attention from the helpless young. I ghall noJ 



