BIRDS'-NESTS 



mat of a light felt-like substance, which looks as if 

 it came from the hatter's, but which is probably 

 the work of numerous worms or caterpillars. On 

 this soft lining the female deposits six speckled 



I recently discovered one of these nests in a most 

 interesting situation. The tree containing it, a 

 variety of the wild cherry, stood upon the brink of 

 the bald summit of a high mountain. Gray, time- 

 worn rocks lay piled loosely about, or overtoppled 

 the just visible byways of the red fox. The trees 

 had a half-scared look, and that indescribable wild- 

 ness which lurks about the tops of all remote moun- 

 tains possessed the place. Standing there, I looked 

 down upon the back of the red-tailed hawk as he 

 flew out over the earth beneath me. Following 

 him, my eye also took in farms and settlements and 

 villages and other mountain ranges that grew blue 

 in the distance. 



The parent birds attracted my attention by ap- 

 pearing with food in their beaks, and by seeming 

 much put out. Yet so wary were they of revealing 

 the locality of their brood, or even of the precise 

 tree that held them, that I lurked around over an 

 hour without gaining a point on them. Finally a 

 bright and curious boy who accompanied me secreted 

 himself under a low, projecting rock close to the 

 tree in which we supposed the nest to be, while I 

 moved off around the mountain-side. It was not 

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