OUR BIRDS IN WINTER. 
107 
^^Yoii may believe that my attention was 
fixed to the utmost in watcliing him ; for I 
was ignorant of the real character of the 
thing he was making, although I, of course, 
expected something wrong. When he had 
fixed the button so that it would play readily 
through the crotch, he stretched out the noose 
on the cord and kept it open by thrusting 
down little pieces of twigs into the earth 
within it. Thus you see that the snare was 
completed, or rather was when he fixed on the 
end of the slender stick, beneath the button, 
a piece of apple. I did not see into the dia- 
bolical trap even when it was finished, and 
how should I ? I must confess that I wanted 
to taste the apple that the man had left so 
temptingly exposed, but I mistrusted some- 
thing wrong in it, and moreover one of our 
neighbors, the crows, flying over, spying it, 
cried out, ^ Beware ! it is a trap ! ’ You 
know that the crows always mistrust a string. 
I flew down from the tree to the spring to get 
a drink of water, when the man went away, 
and was just about going to the snare to 
