60 THE CITY OF THE BIRDS. 



holds, has also provided means for their protection, 

 not only in the consummate skill of hiding their 

 nests, but in the rapid development of their 

 young. 



They must not remain too long in the same 

 locality, however well concealed they may be, for 

 the prowlers would be sure to find them out at 

 last. So they are brought into the world at 

 the time when crawling and flying insects most 

 abound, that the little gluttons may be generously 

 fed, and hastened into strength of body and wing 

 necessary for escape. 



It is a notable picture that I see on the rose 

 twig under the arrow-wood. A flower has blos- 

 somed near the doorstep, and the anxious mother 

 stands transfixed at the edge of her nest, as if 

 some taxidermist had prepared and wired her to 

 the spot ; yet her unwinking eye, with its odd 

 white circle round the pupil, gleams with the light 

 of parental solicitude which a round bit of painted 

 glass could not send forth. 



It is evident that the bird is remaining thus 

 motionless, and trusting to her harmonizing colors 

 for concealment, for it is not till I have drawn 

 near enough to have touched her, and just when 

 my attention for an instant is given to a dozen 

 blood-thirsty mosquitoes, that she flies off to 

 begin her scolding. 



None of the young birds are missing. Four 



