70 THE CITY OF THE BIRDS. 



skill that all these kinds of insects possess of 

 changing their course in flight so quickly every 

 instant, and of hiding themselves so suddenly, has 

 been given them for the purpose of protection. 



Along the green and brown forest floor are 

 scattered, like brilliant figures on a dusky and 

 rumpled carpet, little plots of partridge berry blos- 

 soms, into each tube of which has been stuffed 

 a bit of pink wool, redolent with the odor of 

 Mitchella. Here is a pod of a starflower, in 

 which is a round dozen of angular, rough, white- 

 coated seeds. How compactly and neatly Nature 

 stows away her grains until she wishes to sow 

 them ! 



But the rarest thing shown to me in this ram- 

 ble, is the very interesting and characteristic nest 

 of the golden crown thrush. As I pass by a 

 drift of dry leaves lodged in a scanty growth of 

 whortleberry bushes, the mother bird shoots out 

 from the brown mass, and appears for an instant, 

 like a dark, tremulous streak along the ground, 

 and then disappears amidst the foliage of the sur- 

 rounding shrubbery. A thorough search among 

 the various little bosses and hummocks brings to 

 light, at last, after much peering and prying, a 

 house built by a pair of these ingenious archi- 

 tects. A miniature Dutch oven it seems on 

 the exterior ! A perfect little bird hut, with a 

 roof made of several layers of dry leaves well 



