nest and cuddled down over the eggs till her 

 head hardly showed above the rim. Had a few 

 bushes been removed I could have seen the nest 

 from my front door. 



"Why do the wood-birds so persistently build 

 their nests along the paths and roads? I said 

 that even the hermit-thrush prefers a wood with 

 a road through it. If he possibly can he will 

 build along that road. And what one of the 

 birds will not ? Is it mere stupidity ? Is it curi- 

 osity to see what goes on ? Is there some safety 

 here from enemies worse than boys and cats and 

 dogs ? Or is it that these birds take this chance 

 for human fellowship f If this last is the reason 

 for their rejecting the deep tangles for limbs that 

 overhang roads and tufts of grass in constantly 

 traveled foot-paths, then they can be pardoned ; 

 otherwise they are foolish— fatally foolish. 



The first black-and-white warbler's nest I ever 

 found was at the base of a clump of bushes in a 

 narrow wood-path not ten feet from a highway. 

 There were acres of bushes beyond, thick and 

 pathless, all theirs to choose from. 



In the same piece of scrub-oak the summer 

 after I found another black-and-white warbler's 

 [158] 



