. Song birds and water fowl . alled to the mother-bird, that now hadher hands full in flying hither and thither tofeed them. When the chicks had all left theirnarrow quarters I followed my beaten track tothe apple-tree for the last time, and took awaythe nest for a memento. It is not an elaborateaffair, although neatly woven, and composed ofstraw, dried grass, slender twigs of evergreen,and several strings which I had furnished ; whilethe lining is of soft lint, apparently from a car-pet, and my white yarn. At this late season, too, the air seemed fullof goldfinches; for the young were just be
. Song birds and water fowl . alled to the mother-bird, that now hadher hands full in flying hither and thither tofeed them. When the chicks had all left theirnarrow quarters I followed my beaten track tothe apple-tree for the last time, and took awaythe nest for a memento. It is not an elaborateaffair, although neatly woven, and composed ofstraw, dried grass, slender twigs of evergreen,and several strings which I had furnished ; whilethe lining is of soft lint, apparently from a car-pet, and my white yarn. At this late season, too, the air seemed fullof goldfinches; for the young were just begin-ning to try their wings and voices. Cedar birdsand goldfinches have this peculiarity in com-mon, that they are the latest of all our birds torear their young, almost all other species hav-ing their second or even third brood quite asearly as these have their first. I am ignorantof the cause of so great delay ; but it is reason-able to suppose that the supply of suitable foodfor the young largely determines the time of 224. CEDAR BIRDS ^_,<\ ox. Lake George rearing them, of which we apparently have anexample in the cuckoo. Delicacy of organiza-tion, which would seem one of the most naturalcauses for a delay until the heat of July, cannotexplain it in these cases, since both goldfinchesand cedar birds are sufficiently hardy to remainwith us all winter. Lake George is said to be famous for pick-erel fishing. Certainly it was not impoverishedby any abstractions of mine; and I served afaithful two weeks apprenticeship in trying toallure, with a spoon-hook, those tasty creat-ures. I asked advice as to the best methodfrom all the noted fishermen in the neighbor-hood, whom I found to be, in one respect,very much like music-teachers—each one knewhis art better than all the rest. By actual countI was told of four different ways of course I followed them all consecutively;and, as a reward of my labor, I found myselffor once in the same boat with the holy Apos-tles, wh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
