It turned out that she had a nest of her own with five eggs in
a spruce-tree near my window.
Then this pair of little fly-catchers did what I had never seen birds
do before; they pulled the nest to pieces and rebuilt it in a
peach-tree not many rods away, where a brood was successfully reared.
The nest was here exposed to the direct rays of the noon-day sun, and
to shield her young when the heat was greatest, the mother-bird would
stand above them with wings slightly spread, as other birds have been
know to do under like circumstances.
To what extent the cat-bird is a nest-robber I have no evidence,
but that feline mew of hers, and that flirting, flexible tail, suggest
something not entirely bird-like.
Probably the darkest tragedy of the nest is enacted when a snake
plunders it. All birds and animals, so far I have observed, behave
in a peculiar manner toward a snake. They seem to feel something of
the loathing toward it that the human species experiences. The bark of
a dog when he encounters a snake is different from that which he gives
out on any other occasion; it is a mingled note of alarm, inquiry,
and disgust.
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