But no nest could I find. Indeed, how can
one by searching find a bird's nest? I overshot the mark; the nest was
much nearer me, almost under my very nose, and I discovered it, not by
searching but by a casual glance of the eye, while thinking of other
matters. The bird was just settling upon it as I looked up from my book
and caught her in the act. 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. I disturbed her several times to note her ways. There came to be
something almost appealing in her looks and manner, and she would keep
her place on her precious eggs till my outstretched hand was within a
few feet of her. Finally, I covered the cavity of the nest with a dry
leaf. This she did not remove with her beak, but thrust her head deftly
beneath it and shook it off upon the ground. Many of her sympathizing
neighbors, attracted by her alarm note, came and had a peep at the
intruder and then flew away, but the male bird did not appear upon the
scene. The final history of this nest I am unable to give, as I did not
again visit it till late in the season, when, of course, it was empty.

Years pass without my finding a brown-thrasher's nest; it is not a nest
you are likely to stumble upon in your walk; it is hidden as a miser
hides his gold, and watched as jealously. The male pours out