I can find that nest." And he dived
down, and brought up in the empty air just as the mother had done. How
he winnowed it with his eager wings! how he seemed to bear on to that
blank space! His mate sat regarding him intently, confident, I think,
that he would find the clew. But he did not. Baffled and excited, he
returned to the perch beside her. Then she tried again, then he rushed
down once more, then they both assaulted the place, but it would not
give up its secret. They talked, they encouraged each other, and they
kept up the search, now one, now the other, now both together. Sometimes
they dropped down to within a few feet of the entrance to the nest, and
we thought they would surely find it. No, their minds and eyes were
intent only upon that square foot of space where the nest had been. Soon
they withdrew to a large limb many feet higher up, and seemed to say to
themselves, "Well, it is not there, but it must be here somewhere; let
us look about." A few minutes elapsed, when we saw the mother bird
spring from her perch and go straight as an arrow to the nest. Her
maternal eye had proved the quicker. She had found her young. Something
like reason and common sense had come to her rescue; she had taken time
to look about, and behold! there was that precious doorway. She thrust
her head into it, then sent back a call to her mate, then went farther
in, then withdrew. "Yes, it is true, they are here, they are here!" Then
she went in again, gave them the food in her beak, and then gave place
to her mate, who, after similar demonstrations of joy, also gave them
his morsel.

Ted and I breathed freer. A burden had been taken from our minds and
hearts, and we went cheerfully on our way. We had learned something,
too; we had learned that when in the deep woods you think of bluebirds,
bluebirds may be nearer you than you think.

* * * * *

One mid-April morning two pairs of bluebirds were in very active and at
times violent courtship about my grounds. I could not quite understand
the meaning of all the fuss and flutter. Both birds of each pair were
very demonstrative, but the female in each case the more so. She
followed the male everywhere, lifting and twinkling her wings, and
apparently seeking to win him by both word and gesture. If she was not
telling him by that cheery, animated, confiding, softly endearing speech
of hers, which she poured out incessantly, how much she loved him, what