150 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
picture, which was a much narrower escape. This nest 
was a particularly retired one, having been made in 
a small thick swamp that was closely hedged about 
with a perfect thicket of wild roses, brambles, and 
various other bushes and vines ; and it was only dis- 
covered by the piercing cries of distress that came 
from it. These were heard by a gentleman who was 
listening for the songs of different birds ; and fearing 
that some dreadful calamity was threatening the poor 
cat-birds, whose voices he immediately recognized, he 
got through the thicket with some difficulty, and soon 
discovered the cause of all this outcry. About three 
or four yards from him was the nest, beneath which 
a huge black snake had twisted himself in such a 
way that his head hung over the nest, which con- 
tained several young ones. At that very moment a 
bird about two-thirds grown was slowly disappearing 
between his expanded jaws. By slow degrees he 
swallowed his victim ; his head flattened, his neck 
writhed and swelled, and two or three undulatory 
movements of his glistening body finished the work. 
Then he cautiously raised himself up, his tongue 
flaming from his mouth, the while curved over the 
nest, and with wavy, subtle motions explored the in- 
terior. I can conceive of nothing more overpower- 
ingly terrible to an unsuspecting family of birds/ 
says the narrator, ‘than the sudden appearance 
