222 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



being but five feet above tie ground. Instead, I saw 

 only the eggs, and supposed she was ofiF them for a 

 moment in search of food. Bat going back again some 

 hours after, I noted that she was still absent ; and, as my 

 visits were several times repeated, with the same result, I 

 came to the conclusion the bird had abandoned her nest. 

 The eggs were there, all nine of them, but cold to the 

 touch, as though they had not been lately sat upon. 

 This, in fine, proved to be the fact; and now, knowing the 

 nest abandoned, I broke one of the eggs, to ascertain 

 how far they had been hatched. The embryo bird was 

 in process of taking shape, which betokened an incuba- 

 tion of some days. But why had the mother forsaken 

 her brood so soon to be ? She had only been once dis- 

 turbed, though several times looked at by passers-by. 

 Was this the cause of her defection ? For some time I 

 supposed it might be, knowing that several species of 

 birds have the habit, not only of deserting their eggs, 

 but young, when the nest has been too often visited. As 

 it turned out, however, the explanation seems to be 

 difierent, my gardener three days after having found a 

 dead tit on one of the walks, the hen bird of Parus major, 

 no doubt the mother of the unhatched brood in the 

 laburnum. But there is still a mystery unsolved, — as to 

 how she came by her death, — since there was no wound 

 nor other sign of injury — not a scratch of skin or ruffle 

 of feather upon her ! My narrative of these two incuba- 

 tory birds, I am sorry to say, is not yet at an end, having 

 to record a still more painfully tragical fate for the little 

 nun. Wishing to ascertain whether the eleven eggs had 

 been all fruitful, I had the ladder re-erected, and the boy 

 sent up again. On lifting 6S the wooden cap, he saw the 

 mother bird, as before, sitting on the nest, but in a 



