SPRING. 



41 



horse-hair bed, and in their midst the insinuated specimen of the cheeky 

 cow-blackbird : there were eggs of every shape and hue, and we knew too 

 well where to put our hand on them. 



In a flowering hawthorn outside our window we watched a loving 

 pair building their pensile nest among the thorns and blossoms. How 

 incessant was their solicitude for that fragile framework until its strength 



*n~ 



was fully assured against the tossing breeze ! 

 ■■>% ',, Tenderly and eagerly they helped each other in the 

 "fC"" • J ^i''^ < ^.- - disposition of those ravellines of string and 

 • . *\w* sl * strips of bark! he stopping every now and 

 'A- then to whisper sweetly to his mate, as she, 



-^ with drooping, trembling wings, put up her little 

 open bill to kiss. Yes, we often saw this little 

 tender episode, as we watched them through the shutters of the half- 

 closed blinds ! Now he flies away ; and the little spouse, thus left alone, 

 jumps into the nest, and we see its mossy meshes swell as she fits the 

 deep hollow to her feathery breast. Presently her consort returns, trail- 

 ing along a gossamer of cobweb, which he throws around the supporting 

 thorn, and leaves for her to spread and tuck among the crevices 



6 



Again 



