146 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
you like, if, you are careful not to disarrange the imme- 
diate surroundings, the old birds will not be disturbed. 
I have even placed my hand on a robin on her nest 
while she was looking straight at me; then she moved 
only a foot or so away, where she remained until I had 
counted the four eggs she was incubating, and while I 
yet stood by the bush she again took her place on the 
nest, and I left her looking as serene out of her clear 
eyes as though no intruder had been nigh. At another 
time a blue bird kept her place and pecked my hand 
while I examined the nest. But it is early autumn, 
after the leaves begin to redden and the woodbine to 
glorify the fences and bushes with their traceries of 
blended colors, where the thistle and wild lettuce seeds 
are ripening, and the sweet elder and pokeweed are 
purple with shining berries, when the thorn apples, 
which grow here in great abundance, are showing red 
among the russet leaves, that the birds come to this 
place in greatest numbers; many species meeting as if 
by a common understanding and by mutual consent, 
some coming for food, some for shelter, some apparently 
for seclusion, while others are here with their last sum- 
mer’s brood, which they are teaching to sing. It is a 
rare pleasure on a mild September day to sit on the 
sunny slope of this ravine and listen to one of these 
musical performances. Sometimes it is the robins, 
sometimes the cat birds, or blue birds, but oftenest you 
may hear the song sparrows practicing in the leafy con- 
servatory. The old birds will sing a few bars, then the 
young will take up the strain in that wavering, uncer- 
