12 THE AUDUBON (BULUE Tiss 
A Woodland Tenement House 
/ | \HE back steps of my summer home have no risers and under- 
neath the porch is the oil barrel. One day, while going into the 
house, a ground sparrow came flying from the opposite direction. 
It had an insect in its mouth and saw me in time to light on the barrel 
for a second and then hurry on. I stood still and in a few seconds 
another bird came but seeing me flew in one side and out the other. 
They both seemed to say, “Excuse me. I have business some other 
place and just came this way for a short cut.’ 
My suspicions were aroused. Investigation revealed the nest on the 
top of the post under the porch,—the two birds scolding me all the 
time from a nearby sassafras bush. 
Soon afterwards my mother came in and said: “My, what a scolding 
I got just now from two birds, and all I did was to walk upstairs.” 
I explained the reason to her. 
The nest was in such a position that we could not see into it and as 
we only go to the house week-ends, we did not see the little ones. 
In the fall, I thought I would give the nest to a small friend. The 
nest had not been constructed in the usual manner and the first handful 
pulled out consisted of loose roots. The second handful, however, con- 
tained a surprise. A white-footed field mouse had remodeled the nest 
to suit a mouse household and moved in with her four offspring. When 
thus rudely disturbed, the brave little mother jumped to the ground 
with the four little ones hanging on to her and ran under the steps. 
The nest was destroyed and thrown on the ground. 
The next week when I visited the cottage, I noticed that the rem- 
nants of the nest had disappeared but thought probably the wind had 
blown them away. When I went to get oil though, I saw little roots 
sticking off the post, almost as they were when the birds had lived 
there. So Mrs. Mouse had moved back. When I thought of the tire- 
less energy she had put forth to rebuild her home, I decided she should 
be left in peace. Jennie A. Russ. 
Bird Stops Paving 
A LITTLE story in the Racine (Wis.) Journal has been forwarded 
by Mrs. M. A. B. of that city telling of street paving operation 
in a suburban residential development which was held up by the 
kind-hearted contractor until a mother partridge had hatched out and 
transported her little family to a new tenement nest in the vicinity. 
