The Tragic Story of a Titmouse 



273 



newcomers. But, — how full life and bird-study are of 'buts' ! — we were told: 

 "It's a pity you did not come sooner, for yesterday the neighbor's cat climbed 

 the pole, reached a paw into the hole, broke one egg, and carried off the sitting 

 female — escaping with her just as I came out and caught her, but too late." 

 We corroborated the sad story as well as we might, for as I reached in my 

 hand there were found six eggs, one of which was broken, and all of them cold. 

 The eggs were all very fresh (this was on May 12), and were laid on practically 

 nothing but the bare floor of the hole; what the books call a nest of "leaves, 

 moss, strips of bark, feathers, etc." was hardly existent in this case. 



For about six weeks after this the lonely male was heard often and seen 

 but occasionally, and (though this may have been due to my imagination) the 

 cheery whistle had a plaintive tone that had not been in it before. By the end 

 of June he was much oftener heard than seen, till he became little more than 

 'a wandering voice'; and before the end of June he was gone, to be heard or 

 seen no more. Where is he now? Will he have more domestic success this sea- 

 son? I wish him luck, though he be no longer in my neighborhood, and I 

 thank him for the fourteen months of his acquaintance. 



YOUNG CEDAR WAXWIXG 

 Photographed by Sheridan F. Wood, West Lafayette, Ohio, August 24, 1915 



