140 Ways of Wood Folk. 



such a beautiful little spot that I know hardly a boy 

 who would be mean enough to disturb it. 



One thing about the nests has always puzzled me. 

 The soft lining has generally more or less rabbit fur. 

 Sometimes, indeed, there is nothing else, and a softer 

 nest one could not wish to see. But where does he 

 get it .-^ He would not, I am sure, pull it out of Br'er 

 Rabbit, as the crow sometimes pulls wool from the 

 sheep's backs. Are his eyes bright enough to find it 

 hair by hair where the wind has blown it, down anions 

 the leaves .? If so, it must be slow work ; but Chick- 

 adee is ver\' patient. Sometimes in spring you may 

 surprise him on the ground, where he ne\'er goes for 

 food ; but at such times he is always shv, and liits up 

 among the birch twigs, and twitters, and goes through 

 an astonishing gymnastic performance, as if to distract 

 your attention from his former unusual one. That is 

 only because you are near his nest. If he has a bit 

 of rabbit fur in his bill meanwhile, your eyes are not 

 sharp enough to see it. 



Once after such a performance I pretended to go 

 away ; but I only hid in a pine thicket. Chickadee 

 listened awhile, then hopped down to the ground, 

 picked up something that I could not see, and flew 

 away. I haye no doubt it was the lining for his nest 

 near by. He had dropped it when I surprised him, 

 so that I should not suspect him of nest-building. 



