70 Wilderness Ways. 



after, a smaller bird, the male, glided up beside her. 

 Then I came on cautiously, watching to see what 

 they would do. 



At the first crack of a twig both birds started for- 

 ward; the male slipped away; the female dropped 

 below the nest, and stood behind a limb, just her face 

 peering through a crotch in my direction. Had I not 

 known she was there, I might have looked the tree 

 over twenty times without finding her. And there 

 she stayed hidden till I was halfway up the tree. 



When I peered at last over the edge of the big 

 nest, after a desperately hard climb, there was a 

 bundle of dark gray down in a little hollow in the 

 middle. It touched me at the time that the little 

 ones rested on a feather bed pulled from the mother 

 bird's own breast. I brushed the down with my 

 fingers. Instantly two heads came up, fuzzy gray 

 heads, with black pointed beaks, and beautiful hazel 

 eyes, and a funny long pin-feather over each ear, 

 which made them look like little wise old clerks 

 just waked up. When I touched them again they 

 staggered up and opened their mouths, — enormous 

 mouths for such little fellows; then, seeing that I 

 was an intruder, they tried to bristle their few pin- 

 feathers and snap their beaks. 



They were fat as two aldermen; and no wonder. 



