BIRD-NESTING . 
s; 
uppermost, just as it is good to have a cox in the 
crew of a boat. This morning I was out bird-nesting. 
Of all collectings the collecting of eggs is at once the 
highest and the lowest. A collection of eggshells is 
loathsome, a monument of human frivolity and wicked- 
ness, worse than a trophy of heads or horns, lower than 
a collection of stamps. But when the eggs only serve, 
like counters, to mark the progress of the game, when 
the whole collection is a record of happy travels in 
birdland, when every egg is a souvenir of some pleasant 
intimacy, I envy the owner. What if he is a robber after 
a sort ? What if he took without saying, “ By your 
leave ” ? It was a keepsake he wanted, and he did not get 
it till he deserved it. No pursuit demands such close and 
patient observation, such a knowledge of the home life of 
the objects of your study. You may live in the same 
garden with a little bird and meet it many times a day, 
and never know that it is married and has a family. For 
weeks the courtship went on under your windows, till she 
accepted him and left his rival to look for another love. 
Then the young couple explored every tree in the garden 
for suitable premises. One branch was tried and rejected 
on account of the ants, another was fixed on but spoiled 
