THE LANDING. 237 



it. The truth of this, as regards both birds and men, 

 was illustrated by a recent adventure near the spring, 

 which had its comical as well as serious features. I saw 

 a purple grakle's nest that had every appearance of be- 

 ing suspended in the tree-top like an oriole's — a position 

 wholly out of the rule. It was too high up to let me 

 solve the mystery by viewing it from below, and to sat- 

 isfy a laudable curiosity I resolved to climb the tree. 



Having done so, I was well repaid for the labor. The 

 nest had been displaced by the wind, but had strangely 

 lodged between two nearly parallel branches, which, how- 

 ever, held it only by its rim and threatened to let it fall 

 at any moment. The poor birds, which were plainly in 

 great distress, had vainly tried to secure it anew, and 

 had built up its edges until they overlapped the sup- 

 porting limbs, but had not the skill to interweave the 

 new stuff with the old, and thus make one structure of it 

 all. Their intentions were good ; the means adopted to 

 secure the desired result deplorably bad. They were 

 merely adding weight above, when they required sup- 

 port below. Many of our birds would have been en- 

 gineers equal to the emergency ; but the grakles were 

 not. I made the nest as secure as I could by drawing 

 it to where the space between the branches was narrow- 

 er, and so gave it sufficient support. The birds looked 

 on approvingly, and I was well repaid by what I imag- 

 ined to be their grateful thanks. 



It now remained for me to descend and leave the 

 birds in peace. I started to do so, when through some 

 strange miscalculation I failed to secure a footing, and 

 fell. I have heard it remarked that there is an art in 



