there is a Ijlack-snake. See the quick movement of its head. ^Vhat is 

 it trying to do? Seize the birds? Let us hide here behind this stump, 

 and tt-ateh the battle. The birds are so busily trying to beat him off 

 that they have no time to cry. Notice how they keep their wings 

 uplifted. There, the snake struck at one of them, but the other is re- 

 newing the assault from behind. How the poor things are panting 

 with the fright and the exertion. John, throw a stone at that snake. 

 "Well, that routed him and he has hidden imder the fence. Too bad. 

 The nest has been rifled and there are no eggs. I wish we had come a 

 little sooner. Why did they not build their nests higher, so that snakes 

 could not rob them? 



Do the song-birds generally build high or low? Observe for your- 

 self and tell me. Last May, a song-sparrow that had met with some 

 such misfortune as this bird, built its nest in a thick mass of wood- 

 bine, against the side of my house, about fifteen feet from the ground. 

 Would you not have thought that a safe place? But it was not, either 

 a rat or an owl pillaged the nest one night. What did the mother- 

 bird do? After a week's moping she built again. Where, do you sup- 

 pose? A few yards from the house on a smooth piece of green grass. 

 There was not a weed or shrub to conceal it. When I saw the nest on 

 the bare ground almost at ray feet, I felt sure that the cats would kill 

 her. The desperate little bird sat there day after day, looking like a 

 brown leaf pressed down in the short grass. As the weather grew hot, 

 and the sun beat down on her, she fairly panted. It was no longer a 

 question of keeping the eggs warm, but of keeping them from roast- 

 ing. I have known male robins in similar cases to make sunshades of 

 themselves. But there was no perch for her husband had he been 

 disposed to shield his mate. ITn wisely, I 'tried to help, and stuck a 

 leafy twig beside the nest. It was a mark for some cat or other enemy, 

 and probably this time the mother-bird was caught, for I never saw 

 her again. 



Whose eyes were keenest and who can best describe our little song- 

 sparrows who were fighting the snake? Mary says, they wore black 

 and brown coats, andhad chestnut heads with small black stripes. Very 

 good. Who can add to that? When they flapped their wings, Euth 

 says, she noticed their under jiarts uei-e «'hite streaked with brown. 

 How many saw the dull red edging the wing feathers, and the little 

 brown stripe behind the ear? Don't forget their long and nearly even 

 brown tails. Were their bills and feet black like the blue-bird's? Some 

 say '•Yes," and some "No." They matched the rest of their verv sober 



