OUR FOREST CHORISTERS. 167 



8. Dr. Watts's statement that " birds in their little nests 

 agree," like too many others intended to form the infant 

 mind, is far from being true. On the contrary, the most 

 peaceful relations of the different species to each other is 

 that of armed neutrality. They are very jealous of their 

 neighbors. A few years ago I was much interested in 

 the house-building of a pair of summer yellow-birds. They 

 had chosen a very pretty site near the top of a tall white 

 lilac, within easy eye-shot of a chamber-window. A very 

 pleasant thing it was, to see their little home growing with 

 mutual help, to watch their industrious skill interrupted 

 only by little flirts and snatches of endearment, frugally 

 cut short by the common sense of the tiny housewife. 

 They had brought their work nearly to an end, and had 

 already begun to line it with fern-down, the gatherings of 

 which demanded more distant journeys and longer ab- 

 sences. 



9. But, alas ! the syringa, immemorial manor of the cat- 

 birds, was not more than twenty feet away, and these 

 "giddy neighbors" had, as it appeared, been all along 

 jealously watchful, though silent, witnesses of what they 

 deemed an intrusion of squatters. No sooner were the 

 pretty mates fairly gone for a new load of lining than 



" To their unguarded nests these weasel Scots came steal- 

 ing." 

 Silently they flew back and forth, each giving a vengeful 

 dab at the nest in passing. They did not fall to and delib- 

 erately destroy the nest, for they might have been caught 

 at their mischief. As it was, whenever the yellow-birds 

 came back, their enemies were hidden in their own sight- 

 proof bush. Several times their unconscious victims re- 

 paired damages, but at length, after counsel taken together, 

 they gave it up. Perhaps, like other unlettered folk, they 

 came to the conclusion that the devil was in it, and yielded 

 to the invisible persecutions of witchcraft. 



