IN THE CATSKILLS 



common meadow mouse lay around on the ground 

 beneath the nest. 



As I was about leaving the woods, my hat almost 

 brushed the nest of the red-eyed vireo, which hung 

 basket-like on the end of a low, drooping branch 

 of the beech. I should never have seen it had 

 the bird kept her place. It contained three eggs of 

 the bird's own, and one of the cow bunting. The 

 strange egg was only just perceptibly larger than 

 the others, yet three days after, when I looked 

 into the nest again and found all but one egg 

 hatched, the young interloper was at least four times 

 as large as either of the others, and with such a 

 superabundance of bowels as to almost smother his 

 bedfellows beneath them. That the intruder should 

 fare the same as the rightful occupants, and thrive 

 with them, was more than ordinary potluck; but 

 that it alone should thrive, devouring, as it were, all 

 the rest, is one of those freaks of Nature in which 

 she would seem to discourage the homely virtues of 

 prudence and honesty. Weeds and parasites have 

 the odds greatly against them, yet they wage a very 

 successful war nevertheless. 



The woods hold not such another gem as the nest 

 of the hummingbird. The finding of one is an event 

 to date from. It is the next best thing to finding 

 an eagle's nest. I have met with but two, both by 

 chance. One was placed on the horizontal branch 

 of a chestnut-tree, with a solitary green leaf, form- 

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