I heard the birds’ alarm calls. I saw a cat. It was carrying a nestling in its mouth. I chased it away. Some time later, I heard the alarms again. I chased the cat away again. For a few days I chased the cat whenever I heard the alarm of the birds. At last, the cat did not return. The nest was emptied. I had delayed the inevitable destruction of the nest but not averted it. My intervention only prolonged the birds’ anguish. If the cat was the cause of the birds’ first distress, then it was I who had caused the second. The days were now gone by. And in expending their efforts upon defending this failed nest, the birds did not learn how to hide another in a better place. It was too late for them to start again. I have recorded my part in the consequence of those events which the birds do not recognise.
