THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 21 



and 1 carried it nearly a mile before it flew from my 

 open hand." 



If these observers are quite sure of what they saw„ 

 fchen undoubtedly snakes have the power to draw 

 birds within their grasp. I remember that my mother 

 once told me that while gathering wild strawberries 

 she had on one occasion come upon a bird fluttering 

 about the head of a snake as if held there by a spell. 

 On her appearance, the snake lowered its head and 

 made off, and the panting bird flew away. A neigh- 

 bor of mine killed a black suake which had swallowed 

 a full-grown red squirrel, probably captured by the 

 same power of fascination. 



THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 



The life of the birds, especially of our migratory 

 song-birds, is a series of adventures and of hair-breadth 

 escapes by flood and field. Very few of them prob- 

 ably die a natural death, or even live out half their 

 appointed days. The home instinct is strong in birds 

 as it is in most creatures ; and I am convinced that 

 every spring a large number of those which have sur- 

 vived the Southern campaign return to their old 

 haunts to breed. A Connecticut farmer took me out 

 under his porch, one April day, and showed me a 

 phoebe bird's nest six stories high. The same bird 

 had no doubt returned year after year ; and as there 

 was room for only one nest upon her favorite shelf, 

 she had each season reared a new superstructure upon 

 the old as a foundation. I have heard of a white 

 robin — an albino — that nested several years in sue* 



