. Nature sketches in temperate America, a series of sketches and a popular account of insects, birds, and plants, treated from some aspects of their evolution and ecological relations . afterwards were spent in observing the attentive motherrear her pretty little family. The final question may be raised:Did the mouse accidentally stray into the wrens nest to givebirth to her coming progeny? Or, are we to interpret thetragedy in the wren household to the wilful plot of the mouseto attack and eat the wren? The most we can do is to givethe facts for the kindly consideration of our readers.^ Since
. Nature sketches in temperate America, a series of sketches and a popular account of insects, birds, and plants, treated from some aspects of their evolution and ecological relations . afterwards were spent in observing the attentive motherrear her pretty little family. The final question may be raised:Did the mouse accidentally stray into the wrens nest to givebirth to her coming progeny? Or, are we to interpret thetragedy in the wren household to the wilful plot of the mouseto attack and eat the wren? The most we can do is to givethe facts for the kindly consideration of our readers.^ Since these lines were in type I am informed by C. F. Castle that hehad two wren boxes on his premises having holes .only three-quarters of aninch in diameter or just large enough for the wrens to enter. Two pairs ofwrens established their homes in these boxes, but both pairs soon afterwardssuddenly disappeared. On investigation of the interior of the boxes he foundin one the nest of a white-footed mouse, in the other the remains ot a deadwren, showing unmistakable evidence that the wren had been killed by oneof these mice, probably at night. 252 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA. Strange Mishaps to Birds F all the various mishapsthat befall birds duringtheir life struggles wererecorded, what a collec-tion of tragical incidentssuch a voluminous recordwould contain! One dayin July, I discovered abeautiful nest of the Bal-timore oriole swaying infr the air from one of theterminal branches of alarge beech tree. Thefamily of orioles occupy-ing it had left some timebefore. For a week after-wards I passed the local-ity of the nest withoutobserving anything un-usual about it. Of coursethere was no expectationof seeing the artisans thathad built the superb archi-tectural structure, for orioles usually leave their nests in Junein this latitude, being much earlier than most birds. Later,while on a strolling tour of inspection one morning, after astrong northeast wind, accompanied with rain
Size: 1075px × 2325px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectins
