nearer the house, and in some
rather open bushes tried again. But again they came to grief. Then,
after some delay, the mother bird made a bold stroke. She seemed to
reason with herself thus: "Since I have fared so disastrously in seeking
seclusion for my nest, I will now adopt the opposite tactics, and come
out fairly in the open. What hides me hides my enemies: let us try
greater publicity." So she came out and built her nest by a few small
shoots that grew beside the path that divides the two vineyards, and
where we passed to and fro many times daily. I discovered her by chance
early in the morning as I proceeded to my work. She started up at my
feet and flitted quickly along above the ploughed ground, almost as red
as the soil. I admired her audacity. Surely no prowler by night or day
would suspect a nest in this open and exposed place. There was no cover
by which they could approach, and no concealment anywhere. The nest was
a hasty affair, as if the birds' patience at nest-building had been
about exhausted. Presently an egg appeared, and then the next day
another, and on the fourth day a third. No doubt the bird would have
succeeded this time had not man interfered. In cultivating the vineyards
the horse and cultivator had to pass over this very spot. Upon this the
bird had not calculated. I determined to assist her. I called my man,
and told him there was one spot in that vineyard, no bigger than his
hand, where the horse's foot must not be allowed to fall, nor tooth of
cultivator to touch. Then I showed him the nest, and charged him to
avoid it. Probably if I had kept the secret to myself, and let the bird
run her own risk, the nest would have escaped. But the result was that
the man, in elaborately trying to avoid the nest, overdid the matter;
the horse plunged, and set his foot squarely upon it. Such a little
spot, the chances were few that the horse's foot would fall exactly
there; and yet it did, and the birds' hopes were again dashed. The pair
then disappeared from my vicinity, and I saw them no more.

THE HOUSE WREN

A few years ago I put up a little bird-house in the back end of my
garden for the accommodation of the wrens, and every season a pair have
taken up their abode there. One spring a pair of bluebirds looked into
the tenement and lingered about several days, leading me to hope that
they would conclude to occupy it. But they finally went away, and later
in the season the wrens appeared, a