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ing to his old home. He evidently was sure of 

 his mate, and was for four days ceaselessly at 

 work. Perhaps he found odd moments when he 

 could eat, as he constantly did to sing, but never 

 a leisurely meal was his, I am very sure, The 

 old homestead must be made habitable again. 

 And how he worked ! All the old rubbish of last 

 summer was pulled from the box, and none of 

 it taken back, I fancy. While I watched the 

 busy bird two days after his arrival, I recalled an 

 occurrence of last summer, and wondered if there 

 might be a repetition of it, with my aid ; and at all 

 events the bird's movements would tend to show 

 whether it was the same wren or not. So I 

 placed tempting material for nest-building on a 

 piece of very thin board, and set it afloat in a 

 huge basin. It was directly discovered ; the old 

 wren was looking for it, I am sure now, but last 

 year's tactics were not repeated as a whole. 

 Then the bird alighted on the strands of hemp 

 and submerged them and almost itself, and only 

 after many trials hit upon the plan of dipping 

 down and seizing a strand while on the wing. 

 Would it do this now, a year later ? I was all 

 impatience while the wren flittered nervously 

 about the basin, but was encouraged by its con- 

 templative manner. At last it attempted to 

 alight on the mass, and I felt angry at its stupidity 

 and my own overconfidence. But no ! it proved 



