jgirli = lDre 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon Societies 



Vol. Ill May— June, 1901 No. 3 



A Bewildered Phoebe 



BY JOHN BURROUGHS 



With photographs from nature 



I HAD a good illustration last summer of how limited the mother-wit 

 of a Phcebe bird is when new conditions and surroundings confront 

 her. A pair of these birds had annually built their nest in a little 

 niche in a ledge of rocks near my 'Slabsides,' or rather several years ago 

 they built a nest there, and as there was no room for a second nest, each 

 subsequent spring they had repaired and refurnished the old one and reared 

 their brood in it. It was in a lonely place, at the mouth of a deep 

 recess in the ledge, and I thought quite secure from all creeping and 

 climbing enemies of the birds. A thick growth of small trees formed a 

 screen in its front, to hide it from the eye of winged marauders, and 

 no snake or squirrel could reach it from the rock itself. 



When the nest contained three or four eggs I allowed a young friend 

 of mine to take one for his collection. This intrusion seemed to invite 

 disaster, for in less than a week the eggs were all gone and the birds 

 had deserted the place. A new stone house had been built upon the 

 rocks above me, with a piazza all around it, covered by a continuation of 

 the main roof down the required distance. After much inspecting of 

 this piazza the birds concluded to build a nest upon the plate beside one 

 of the rafters. Now this plate was about thirty feet long and there were 

 ten rafters notched upon it, and hence ten places exactly alike. The 

 bird selected the fourth rafter from the end nearest the woods, and began 

 her nest upon the plate beside it. She was in a great hurry and worked 

 'on the jump,' so to speak. She got her mortar in the ditch near my 

 cabin. One morning I watched her for some time. She made a trip 

 every minute carrying her load up a steep grade about one hundred 

 yards. The male looked on and cheered her, but did not help. He 

 perched upon a dead sunflower stalk near the ditch, flirted his tail, and 

 said, or seemed to say, 'Go it, Phoebe, you are doing well; you are 



