168 IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY. 



peremptorily as their elders demand their rights 

 and privileges. 



To make the place still more maddening for 

 study, the birds seemed to sweep through the 

 woods in waves. For a long time not a peep 

 would be heard, not a feather would stir ; then 

 all at once 



" The air would throb with wings," 



and birds would pour in from all sides, half a 

 dozen at a time, making us want to look six 

 ways at once, and rendering it impossible to 

 confine ourselves to one. Then, after half an 

 hour of this superabundance, one by one would 

 slip out, and by the time we began to realize it, 

 we were alone again. 



We had watched the wren for nine days when 

 there came an interruption. It happened thus : 

 A little farther up the glen we had another 

 study, a wood-thrush nest in a low tree, and 

 every day, either coming or going, we were ac- 

 customed to spend an hour watching that. Our 

 place of observation was a hidden nook in a pile 

 of rocks, where we were entirely concealed by 

 thick trees, through which, by a judicious thin- 

 ning out of twigs and leaves, we had made peep- 

 holes, for the thrush mamma would not tolerate 

 us in her sight. To reach our seats and not 

 alarm the suspicious little dame, we always 

 entered from the back, slowly and cautiously 



