40 THE WREN. 
Phoebe, however, remains quietly on her nest as the rowboats and 
even launches go under, and as no one looks up the nest and birds 
are never seen. Summer before last, however, there was a tragedy. 
That year the Phoebes built on the beam nearest the river and 
extremely near one end of the bridge. It so happened that the river 
was very low that spring, exposing a large rock just from under the 
bridge near the nest. A boy not satisfied with fishing from the 
bridge, climbed down on this rock to fish, and so his head was not 
many feet from the nest. All went well for a time, as the Phoebe 
remained quietly sitting on the nest, and was not seen. But once, 
alas, the boy got down on the rock when the bird was not on the 
nest. When she returned, the boy saw her fly under the bridge, 
looked up and saw the nest, promptly chased the bird off, and put 
his hand into it. The bird, meanwhile, hovering about in distress. 
All this happened in a moment’s time, and as the bridge was — 
plainly visible from the porch of the boarding-house, we saw the 
whole proceeding with our glasses, and hastened down to the bridge, 
only to find that the boy had gone. ‘The day before this nest had 
contained four eggs, now it was empty! ‘The Phoebes started to 
build in another part of the bridge but abandoned it before they had 
completed more than the foundation. 
Last summer I was glad to see that they again built under the 
bridge and that they did not choose such an exposed position. 
W. Charlesworth Levey. 
