104 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



the food in their beaks a long time, would swal- 

 low it themselves. Then they would obtain an- 

 other morsel and apparently approach very near 

 the nest, when their caution or prudence would 

 come to their aid, and they would swallow the 

 food and hasten away. I thought the young 

 birds would cry out, but not a syllable from them. 

 Yet this was, no doubt, what kept the parent 

 birds away from the nest. The clamor the young 

 would have set up on the approach of the old 

 with food would have exposed everything. 



After a time I felt sure I knew within a few 

 feet where the nest was concealed. Indeed, I 

 thought I knew the identical bush. Then the 

 birds approached each other again and grew very 

 confidential about another locality some rods be- 

 low. This puzzled us, and, seeing the whole 

 afternoon might be spent in this manner and 

 the mystery unsolved, we determined to change 

 our tactics and institute a thorough search of the 

 localiiy. This procedure soon brought things to a 

 crisis, for, as my companion clambered over a log 

 by a little hemlock, a few yards from where we had 

 been sitting, with a cry of alarm out sprang the 

 young birds from their nest in the hemlock, and, 

 scampering and fluttering over the leaves, disap- 

 peared in different directions. Instantly the par- 

 ent birds were on the scene in an agony of alarm. 



