desirable strings should be hanging 

 about on the rough bark of that tree, 

 and she did not mean to give up until 

 they were. 



Of course, her faith was rewarded, 

 and truly it was more blessed to give 

 than to receive. Grocers' cord was 

 broken into pieces from two to three 

 feet long and hung about the body of 

 the tree as in years gone by. This was 

 generally done just before meal time so 

 that all might watch the bird through 

 the windows and enjoy her triumph. 

 Scarcely had one time to get into the 

 house before the anxious bird would fly 

 down, grab a string, and go triumphant- 

 ly to her nest. In a short time all were 

 carefully woven into that wonderful 

 work of art. 



It has been facetiously remarked that 

 we are encouraging laziness in the bird; 

 and in truth it does look so. She posi- 

 tively refused to hunt for material, but 

 waited impatiently for the donation, 

 scolding vigorously when it did not 

 come soon enough. Fully a hundred 

 pieces were used before the nest was 

 complete. 



Experiments were tried with strings 

 of various colors, but only white, ones 

 were wanted in the framework. Whether 

 this was mere caprice or was the result 

 of fear that colors would make the nest 

 too conspicuous, we can only conjecture; 

 but strangely enough, after the nest was 

 seemingly completed, she carried off the 

 colored strings, both dull and bright, 

 probably to be used as the lining. Cer- 

 tainly not one of them showed from the 

 outside. 



A rather amusing incident occurred 

 during the building. One day "Peter" 

 took it into his head — manlike, as the 

 young lady of the family said — to poke 

 his nose into what was none of his busi- 

 ness. During the absence of his wife, 

 he stole into the house to see how things 

 were going. One hasty glance ; Madam 

 was coming; in his eagerness to avoid a 

 scene, he somehow got one wing tangled 

 in the maze of strings which, to the mas- 

 culine bird as well as to man, seemed to 

 be a perfect mystery. There was 

 Madam, perched on a limb just above ; 

 and there was "Peter," literally caught 

 in the very act of intruding. He strug- 



gled and screamed, while his spouse 

 hopped about, eying him in the most 

 tantalizing manner. After punishing 

 him sufficiently in this way, she gave 

 proof of her feminine heart by releasing 

 him from his embarrassing predicament. 



II. 



The bluebirds had a hard fight for 

 their box in the cherry tree. The Eng- 

 lish sparrows were bent upon having 

 that box, and many severe battles were 

 fought to decide the question of owner- 

 ship. It should be stated that the blue- 

 birds had some advantage in a treaty of 

 alliance with the writer, which brought 

 to their aid a piece of heavy artillery in 

 the. form of a 22-caliber rifle. It was 

 surprising to see how quickly and how 

 thoroughly the little warriors on both 

 sides understood the nature of the alli- 

 ance. On catching sight of the man 

 with the gun, the sparrows always beat 

 a hasty retreat, while bluebirds re- 

 mained to look and sing their gratitude. 

 But the sparrows were not all quick 

 enough, and several of them fell before 

 they finally decided to give up the fight. 



On one occasion a sparrow was shot 

 from a low limb while a bluebird sat an 

 interested spectator a few feet above. 

 As the sparrow fell to the ground, 

 "Snowflake," the pet cat, ran to grab it. 

 Instead of flying off in a fright, the blue- 

 bird hopped down to the limb from 

 which the sparrow had just fallen, peer-, 

 ing down at its quivering foe and shak- 

 ing its wings in unmistakable delight. I 

 have noticed the same discrimination on 

 the part of the wren. When the spar- 

 row that had been trying long and hard 

 to evict the little singer from its home 

 in the wall was shot before its eyes, the 

 wren expressed its satisfaction by mak- 

 ing its frail body fairly quiver with 

 song. 



A pair of pewees built on the plate of 

 the open shed. The rafters merely lie on 

 the plate and extend far beyond, leaving 

 a fine space between it and the roof. The 

 birds started four nests against as many 

 rafters, and for some time it was hard 

 to tell which they meant to occupy. At 

 last they decided — or possibly it was so 

 intended from the start — to use the sec- 

 ond nest from the east, leaving the first 



