The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-29

enough good logs from the great pile to sup
ply the mill Yet the procession keeps COM
ing down the river. Many of the logs
float perpendicularly, with just the end
above water, sign of decay Many more
must decay in the big pile before they can
be used.
But the canoeists do not bother about tn
why's and wherefores of this. Neither do
they bother about the logs. 1t is fun to
dodge among them, because the little canoe
is as true as a rifle and because to strike a
log just light might mean shipwreck.
There are changes in the river scenery
since last year. A forest fire has blackened
and ruined acres and acres on one of the
high wooded banks. Oh, what blot it is
amidst the delicate greens and yellows of
the spring foliage all about.
Another high wooded bank has been
scraped clean, but for a small space only
Great hemlock logs have been slid down
during the spring. Some are lying now on
the brink of the bank, their naked trunks
cleaning in the sunlight. Beyond is the
pile of valuable bark.
The Little River, on its journey from Cor
ham enters the Presumpscot just below
Madison Falls AS the Canoeists entered
ito y uleb CuTT6ub anu SllI pdob CloSS W tliO
curving shore, small new birds nest was
visible in the bushes. Inspection showed it
to be the home of pair of redstarts. They
had built the nest this spring, but they
were nowhere about, and the large notified
egg that nearly filed the dainty interior
was never laid by a redstart. 1t was cold
and the nest was manifestly deserte d.
The situation was a very unusual one in
L. 4. TnsI
by cow-bunting, that lazy bird, over
twice as large as the redstart that always
leaves its notified eggs in the nests of other
birds, there to be hatcheu and to have its
discarded offspring reared by stranger.
But the COW bunting in this case, had made
a serious mistake. 1t laid it's egg before the
redstart laid, and the latter simply aban-
doned nest and egg. This must have been
the case or else the little redstarts had built
a new nest and carried their eggs, to it,
which is highly improbable. Usually the
artful cowbunting lays its egg in smaller
bird IS nest when half of the little eggs
have been laid, and there is just room for
its large egg, which cannot be lifted out,
and must be Matched if the others are AS
the strange nesting grows it crowds the
smaller birds and seizes all the food brought
family sacrificed to the rapacity of this one.
hugh and extraordinary child of theirs.
Arrived at the stone piers of the acqueduct,
whore the old canal crossed the Little River,
the Canoeists made preparation for supper.
Just why they selected that particular pine
tree to camp under, and then broke frewood
against it will never be known. But at the
first blow, away few partridge from some
whre. Finally there was the nests, perfect
1y hidden under small fir bush at the
roots of the great tree, that only the fight
of the bird would have revealed it. In a
hollow in the pine needles lined with leaves
were eleven beautiful cream colored eggs, a
little larger than a pidgeon's. They are
there still, and probably the mother bird
has not yet forgotten the shock of that blow
on the tree or the strange spectacle of the
cracking flames and the giant intruders, as
she watched them from the thicket, moving
about so close to her precious treasurers at
the root of the mighty pine.