.

How different the mathematical precision of the spruce, which might
indeed have been laid out upon geometrical lines! When a baby spruce has
but three twigs, one will stand stiffly upright, as if it bore the
responsibility of upholding the spruce traditions of the ages, while the
other twigs will duly spread themselves at nearly right angles, leaving
their brother to represent the aspirations of the family, and thus even
in infancy reproduce in miniature the full-grown, formal tree.

When, after waiting some time in vain for the birds to appear, we
examined the nest before us, we found that it held two thrush eggs and
one of the cowbird. The impertinence of this disreputable bird in
thrusting her plebeian offspring upon the divine songster, to rear at
the expense of her own lovely brood, was not to be tolerated. The dirty
speckled egg looked strangely out of place among the gems that belonged
to the nest, and I removed it, careful not to touch nest or eggs. So
pertinacious is this parasite upon bird society that my friend says that
in Illinois, where the wood thrush represents the charming family,
almost every wood thrush nest, in the early summer, contains a cowbird's
egg; and not until they have reared one of the intruders can the birds
hope to have a brood of their own. Fortunately they nest twice in the
season, and the cowbird does not disturb the second family.

[Sidenote: _A DISTURBER OF NESTS._]

While we sat watching the hermit's nest, we were attracted by another
resident of that cozy group of hemlocks and maples. He appeared upon a
low shrub within twenty feet of us, and began to sing. First came a
long, deliberate note of the clearest and sweetest tone, then two
similar notes, a third higher, followed by three triplets on the same
note. Though dressed in sparrow garb, his colors were bright, and he was
distinguished and made really beautiful by two broad lines of
buff-tinted white over his crown, and a snowy white throat. He was the
white-throated sparrow, one of the largest and most interesting of his
family. The charm of his song is its clearness of tone and
deliberateness of utterance. It is calm as the morning, finished,
complete, and almost the only bird song that can be perfectly imitated
by a human whistle. I never shared the enthusiasm of some of my fellow
bird-lovers for the sparrows till I knew the white-throat and learned to
love the dear little song sparrow. It is unfortunate that the song o