birds' eggs 63 



The eggs of the phoebe-bird are snow-white, and 

 when, in threading the gorge of some mountain 

 trout brook, or prowling about some high, over- 

 hanging ledge, one's eye falls upon this mossy struc- 

 ture planted with such matchless art upon a little 

 shelf of the rocks, with its complement of five or six 

 pearl-like eggs, he is ready to declare it the most 

 pleasing nest in all the range of our bird architecture. 

 It was such a happy thought for the bird to build 

 there, just out of the reach of all four-footed beasts 

 of prey, sheltered from the storms and winds, and, 

 by the use of moss and lichens, blending its nest so 

 perfectly with its surroundings that only the most 

 alert eye can detect it. An egg upon a rock, and 

 thriving there, — the frailest linked to the strong- 

 est, as if the geology of the granite mountain had 

 been bent into the service of the bird. I doubt if 

 crows, or jays, or owls ever rob these nests. Phoebe 

 has outwitted them. They never heard of the bird 

 that builded its house upon a rock. " Strong is thy 

 dwelling-place, and thouputtest thy nest in a rock.'' 



The song sparrow sometimes nests in April, but 



not commonly in our latitude. Emerson says, in 



" May-Day: "~ 



" The sparrow meek, prophetic-eyed, 

 Her nest beside the snow-drift weaves, 

 Secure the osier yet will hide 

 Her callow brood in mantling leaves." 



But the sparrow usually prefers to wait till the snow- 

 drift is gone. I have never found the nest of one 

 till long after the last drift had disappeared from 

 the fields, though a late writer upon New England 



