The Washington herald., 1914-08-06
The Birds Nest.
By EMORY ,. HAYNES.

Boys are always interested in birds nests. Nor
is there anything that reveals boy character so per-
fecty. The boy who IS cruel at heart can find in no
indulgence of his evil passion such gut OF cruelty
stealing the pretty blue eggs and then exulting in
the distress of the parent birds. The winged crea-
lures can for the most part perfectly escape the
boy in the happy upper air Therefore he hates them
He stones them, and rarely hits them, which still
further exasperates and whets his cruelty. There is
always one boy in every hundred whose malevolent
faculties develop faster than his intellect The brutal
boy is monstrosty He takes pleasure in frighten-
ing little girls and terrorzng other boys smaller than
himself. He is shocking youngster anyway, and
we all remember the rascal.
To this abnormal boy the birds nest is prize.
He goes hunting for them on Sundays. He is glee-
ful when he can toss down TO the ground handful
of Aedglngs whose tiny wings yet uniformed. The
young demoniac will sit and feast his eyes on the
swirling circng mother bird, plaintively lamentng
in his cruel On every countryside there is bad
boy who destroys birds for fun and who tears down
nests to feed his growing cruelty. This pervert lad
will effect more bird depletion in season, just hunt
ing birds nests than thousand vain women who
seek plumage for fashion.
The bird home to the normal boy, is always sacred
This type of lad knows many nest. He will sit by
the hour to watch the lady bird her journeys aed
and back bringing the worm in her beak. He himself
brings pocetfu of crumbs to scatter at the foot Of
the tree. He climbs to gaze down at the beautiful
blue eggs and would not touch one with finger tip.
He forecasts just how long before the hatch, in this
nest and that and he plans to help feed the edgngs
The blind eyes, yet open mouths hungry for food the
very defenselessness of the nest full all appeal to
the boy strangely.
The exhibition of affection in the animal home
sets him to thinking. How like his home Il all
is How like his father is the brave male bird
that darts dehantly at him. He seeks to win the
confidence of the parent birds by doing the nest
HARM visit after visit. High all is the free sky
of azure color of the eggs and the bars of sunshine
through the branches of the lofty tree where he sits
astride and muses. on these beginnings of life.
Has he not picked up the tiny flyer huttering on
the grass in failure fly? Has he not chased away
the dog? Has he not climbed again the nest, de-
posting the helpless chick in the nest its paptating
breast appealing to his very knightly soul?
Then these great storms that cast down bird houses
and some human houses. The ruin and the dead make
deep impressions on the boys heart 1t is strange
world, and who explain the unkindness of na-
ture to her own creatures?
Every true-hearted country boy has, more than
once softly carried the bird with broken wing and
wished he could mend it. He has put back the nest
which the winds threw down. He has wondered why
the birds never will come back, work he never so
skifuly, nor will he ever find the reason, for no
body knows. Birds carry FIRE and tornado in
surance. When the home is harmed they
abandon the ruins Perhaps it is just as we'll So for
birds have wings and there is ample in the vast
infinite sky. They fly away from sorrow and be-
gin again in a safer place. Is it hint to
us men? Our sky is really the only infinite space
Better leave the ruins and go elsewhere to build
anew and wiser.
If left to the undsturbed possession many migrant
birds will return, after season, to the
nest. Especially, is this of house-frequenting
birds In one corner of my piazza, it to me-
each spring the identical birds in the same old
How far South did they go? How traced they their
way back to this spot? If it is not the same in
dviduals twenty years ago, it is the grandchildren
Their nest is old
| One day l shipped off bit of gingham that pro-
truded and whipped in the winds of late autumn after
the migration. We found il the fragment of child.
dress of long ago 1t had been laid as a sort OF
foundation under the entire nest. We did not dis
turb it For the child also had own far ever so far
away. She has not returned as have the birds