MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



their nests as those of other birds were found, seemed im- 

 possible. 



Then I tried going close the sweetest flowers, those often- 

 est visited, the petunias, yellow day lilies, and trumpet 

 creepers, and sitting so immovably I was not noticeable 

 while I made a study of the Lady Birds. My first dis- 

 covery was that they had no tail. One poised near 

 enough to make sure of that, and I hurried to my father 

 with the startling news. He said it was nothing re- 

 markable; birds frequently lost their tails. He ex- 

 plained how a bird in close quarters has power to relax 

 its muscles, and let its tail go in order to save its body, 

 when under the paw of a cat, or caught in a trap. 



That was satisfactory, but I thought it must have been 

 a spry cat to get even a paw on the Lady Bird, for fre- 

 quently hummingbirds could be seen perching, but never 

 one of these. I watched the tail question sharply, and 

 soon learned the cats had been after every Lady Bird 

 that visited our garden, or any of our neighbours, for 

 not one of them had a tail. When this information 

 was carried my father, he became serious, but finally he 

 said perhaps the tail was very short; those of humming- 

 birds or wrens were, and apparently some water birds had 

 no tail, or at least a very short one. 



That seemed plausible, but still I watched this small 

 and most interesting bird of all; this bird that no one 

 ever had seen taking a bath, or perching, and whose nest 



157 



