36 BIRDS- 



most other birds, is such a serious and engrossing 

 matter. If it does not look like play with her, it at 

 least looks like leisure and quiet contemplation. 



There is no nest-builder that suffers more from 

 crows and squirrels and other enemies than the wood- 

 thrush. It builds as openly and unsuspiciously as if 

 it thought the whole world as honest as itself. Its 

 favorite place is the fork of a sapling, eight or ten feet 

 from the ground, where it falls an easy prey to every 

 nest-robbe^ that comes prowling through the woods 

 and groves. It is not a bird that skulks and hides, 

 like the cat-bird, the brown-thrasher, the chat, or the 

 cheewink, and its nest is not concealed with the same 

 art as theirs. Our thrushes are all frank, open-man- 

 nered birds ; but the veery and the hermit build upon 

 the ground, where they at least escape the crows, owls, 

 and jays, and stand a better chance to be overlooked 

 by the red squirrel and weasel also ; while the robin 

 seeks the protection of dwellings and out-buildings. 

 For years I have not known the nest of a wood-thrush 

 to succeed. During the season referred to I observed 

 but two, both apparently a second attempt, as the 

 season was well advanced, and both failures. In one 

 ease, the nest was placed in a branch that an apple- 

 tree, standing near a dwelling, held out over the high- 

 way. The structure was barely ten feet above the mid- 

 dle of the road, and would just escape a passing load 

 of hay. It was made conspicuous by the use of a 

 large fragment of newspaper in its foundation — an 

 unsafe material to build upon in most cases. What* 

 ever else the press may guard, this particular news- 

 paper did not guard this nest from harm. It saw the 

 egg and probably the chick, but not the fledgeling. A 

 murderous deed was committed above the public high- 



