THE PHOEBE. 



317 



the porch, or carriage house, or "kunber shed," Ijoasts no more welcome occu- 

 pant than this gentle fly-catcher. Bridges, and especiall_y stone culverts, offer 

 a mediate ground between nature and ultra civilization, and of these the birds 

 eagerly avail themselves. One expects at the crossing of every stream, in 

 spring, to see a de- 

 mure, dusky bird, 

 perched upon the 

 fence-wire where it 

 spans the water, and 

 to hear him say in 

 plaintive but tender 

 accents, "Peivit, 

 phoche - phcebe - pe- 

 wit, phcebe." Phoe- 

 be herself is brood- 

 ing patiently below, 

 under the cool stone 

 arch, in spite of 

 the thunder of your 

 horse's hoofs. 



It would seem as 

 if these birds become 

 perfectly inured to 

 danger of every sort, 

 and especially to 

 noises. The blasting 

 of rock in a quarry- 

 hole is nothing, if 

 only the nest is not 

 dislodged. In sev- 

 eral instances I have 

 found occupied nests 

 in railroad culverts ; 

 once in an open- 

 topped culvert, and 

 within four feet of 

 passing trains. Less 

 prudent was a bird 

 found sitting in a 

 stone conduit only 

 eighteen inches high, 

 through which a six-inch stream of water flowed. The illustration on the pre- 

 ceding page shows a nest found in an old coffee-pot. which had been left hang- 





Flwto by the 

 Author. 



PHCEBE'S CAVE. 



THIS LITTLE GROTTO IS THE ONE REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT. 



