Perseverance of Birds. 63 



I can hear it flying out and in to its nest ; and on the 

 slightest noise or movement on the part of the dog I 

 have sometimes with me, it will utter its short hoarse 

 cry of warning or alarm. This I seldom hear from it 

 when the dog is not with me, which proves, I think, 

 that the little bird has some idea that I am too pre- 

 occupied with my own task to interfere with it ; though 

 it does not quite trust the dog in the same way, as, 

 indeed, it is quite right in not doing : they are so 

 cunning. 



In the summer of 1889 a thrush built a nest in the 

 fork of a small tree right behind where I stand, and 

 sat on her eggs and nursed her brood within a few 

 yards of me. When I withdrew a little to re-bait, I 

 was within a yard and a half of her nest. Yet still 

 she sat ; and by raising my head a little as I stood I 

 could see her and she could see me — the dark, honest, 

 bead-like eye with not a touch of fear in it met mine 

 with a kind of confidence which was not unrewarded ; 

 for I carefully kept the secret, in response to her trust, 

 till she herself revealed her whereabouts to my friend 

 the proprietor, when he had come round to talk to me, 

 by flying off her young — -little yellow-mouthed,, broad- 

 beaked things, with wide throats — and I could not save 

 them, for he at once condemned them as prospective 

 eaters of his fruit. And I was sorry, though I could 

 not fully say so. 



The perseverance of birds, too, is really wonderful, 

 and on this spot I have seen many remarkable instances 

 of it. In the spring, when nest-building is going on, 

 the devices adopted to transport certain materials to a 

 high branch on a neighbouring tree are hardly credible, 

 any more than is the manner in which the birds are 

 inclined at a stretch to help each other. A couple of 



