BIRDS' NESTS 



[HE knowledge of all other aspects of 

 bird-life, combined, gives no such 

 feeling of intimate acquaintance and 

 peculiar interest as is gained by fol- 

 lowing even the most familiar species, like the 

 robin or sparrow, through the short period of 

 nesting ; and this probably for the reason that 

 this brief annual experience in their lives calls 

 into action the most subtle, personal, and charm- 

 ing qualities of their nature. 



A bird, like a human being, is best known, 

 after all, in the intimacies of its own home. 

 Here it finds a warmer response from our own 

 nature than even in the glow and ecstacy of its 

 most delicious song. Here it is most nearly 

 human, and affords most marked analogies of 

 human wisdom, patience, solicitude and af- 

 fection. And yet it is in the intricate and 

 almost inaccessible details of their short fam- 

 ily life that we still have most to learn con- 

 cerning birds — a fund of problems giving infi- 



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