4 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



chambers in the small dead trees as we went along 

 that I determined to secure the section of a tree 

 containing a good one to take home and put up 

 for the bluebirds. " Why don't the bluebirds oc- 

 cupy them here?" inquired Ted. " Oh," I re- 

 plied, "bluebirds do not come so far into the 

 woods as this. They prefer nesting-places in the 

 open, and near human habitations." After care- 

 fully scrutinizing several of the trees, we at last 

 saw one that seemed to fill the bill. It was a 

 small dead tree-trunk seven or eight inches in 

 diameter, that leaned out over the water, and from 

 which the top had been broken. The hole, round 

 and firm, was ten or twelve feet above us. After 

 considerable effort I succeeded in breaking the 

 stub off near the ground, and brought it down 

 into the boat. " Just the thing," I said ; " surely 

 the bluebirds will prefer this to an artificial box." 

 But, lo and behold, it already had bluebirds in 

 it ! We had not heard a sound or seen a feather 

 till the trunk was in our hands, when, on peering 

 into the cavity, we discovered two young blue- 

 birds about half grown. This was a predicament 

 indeed ! 



Well, the only thing we could do was to stand 

 the tree-trunk up again as well as we could, and 

 as near as we could to where it had stood before. 

 This was no easy thing. But after a time we had 



