A New World 



indicated. Then I asked him what he thought 

 they did with the eggs while a new nest was 

 being prepared. He did n't know; neither do I 

 to this day. A specimen of the many puzzling 

 problems presented to the naturaHst. 



We soon found many more nests belonging 

 to birds that were not half so suspicious. The 

 handsome and notorious blue jay plunders the 

 nests of other birds and of course he could 

 not trust us. Almost all the others — brown 

 thrushes, bluebirds, song sparrows, kingbirds, 

 hen-hawks, nighthawks, whip-poor-wills, wood- 

 peckers, etc. — simply tried to avoid being 

 seen, to draw or drive us away, or paid no 

 attention to us. 



** We used to wonder how the woodpeckers 

 could bore holes so perfectly round, true mathe- 

 matical circles. We ourselves could not have 

 done it even with gouges and chisels. We loved 

 to watch them feeding their yoimg, and won- 

 dered how they could glean food enough for so 

 many clamorous, hxmgry, misatisfiable babies, 

 and how they managed to give each one its 

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