The nest was built near the end of a long, knotty, horizontal
branch of an apple-tree, but effectually hidden by the grouping of the
leaves; it had three eggs, one of which proved to be barren. The two
young birds grew apace, and were out of the nest early in the second
week; but something caught one of them the first night. The other
probably grew to maturity, as it disappeared from the vicinity with
its parents after some days.
The blue-back's nest was scarcely a foot from the ground, in a little
bush situated in a low, dense wood of hemlock and beech and maple,
amid the Catskills,--a deep, massive, elaborate structure, in which the
sitting bird sank till her beak and tail alone were visible above
the brim. It was a misty, chilly day when I chanced to find the nest,
and the mother-bird knew instinctively that it was not prudent to leave
her four half incubated eggs uncovered and exposed for a moment.
When I sat down near the nest she grew very uneasy, and after trying in
vain to decoy me away by suddenly dropping from the branches and
dragging herself over the ground as if mortally wounded, she approached
and timidly and half doubtingly covered her eggs within two yards of
where I sat.
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