THE WREN. 57 
AN EARLY INCENTIVE. 
In the summer of 1903, an event occurred which was one of the 
means of interesting me in the study of birds. Of course, I was 
several years younger, and had not devoted much attention to birds, 
except as they make up a part of nature’s general attraction. The 
place where we were staying was Alandar, in the extreme western 
part of Massachusetts, not far from the New York state boundary. 
Alandar is a section of the Berkshire Hills, and is eight miles from 
the nearest town. As this was so long ago, I do not remember all 
the events of the summer, but the one I now tell about made such 
an impression upon me that I can never forget it. 
It was a midsummer’s day, when a party set out from a white 
farm-house upon a winding country road for an afternoon’s outing. 
My father was the only grown person of the group, which was com- 
posed of children about my own age. After we had journeyed on 
for about two miles, we made a halt to pick berries, which was 
our chief object in the walk. When we had gathered all we wanted, 
and were on the point of turning back, one of our party heard faint 
chirps by the road-side. We all hastened toward the spot from 
which these sounds came, and there under a large tree, were three 
baby-birds. We looked about in the trees to see if we could see 
a nest from which they might have fallen, but saw none. We were 
all anxious to save the little orphans, who looked hungry and fright- 
ened, so my father put them in his hat, and we hurried back toward 
the house. 
When we reached home, we looked about for a large box, knocked 
off one side, put a soft piece of cloth and some straw in it, laid the 
little birds comfortably upon this matting, and then fastened slats 
over the open side. We got some warm milk and crumbs and con- 
cocted a sort of a mush, which we gave the youngsters. For the 
first few days, this was their only food, but later, having found out 
that they were cedar-birds, we tried giving them berries of various 
kinds. ‘These seemed to please them very much, and after that 
they lived almost wholly on berries. Before their feathers were 
fully developed, we could see the round pellets passing down the 
throats of the birds, a process we used to think very amusing. 
There was a cat about the place, but the box was firmly built, and 
