96 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



ground or very close to it, of whose nest- 

 ing" habits I will make a brief outline 

 and of whose nests and eggs I have 



-tofe' 



taken photographs. 



To me there is nothing more enjoyable 

 than to rise about 4 A. .m., don my old 

 clothes, shoulder my Eastman Kodak No. 

 4 or a Premo. sling on a fish creel in which 

 to put my plates and collecting mater- 

 ials, and after hurriedb 7 swallowing a 

 few mouth fuls of breakfast, leave the 

 house for a day's collecting. In my 

 haste to get outdoors I slam the door 

 behind me, half scaring a sleepy starling 

 out of his wits, who has just emerged 

 from his cosy box in a near-by pear 

 tree, to welcome the new coming day 

 with his odd and variegated but fasci- 

 nating song. As I walk on across the 

 lawn towards the meadows, sparkling in 

 the faint light of the fading: moon, with 

 silverv dew, the first robin commences 

 to sing his long, sweet carol, and his 



and tail, utters his familiar "Oubeladee." 

 By this time the grey dawn is swiftly 

 vanishing and a rich crimson glow in the 

 east reminds me that I must not spend 

 too much time thus idly listening to 

 nothing and watching the weather condi- 

 tions instead of my birds. 



However it was on one of these trips 

 in May, 1904, that I first found a nest 

 of the spotted sandpiper (Actitis macu- 

 la via). It was placed among the long 

 grass in a hay-field on our place (Maple- 

 wood Farm) and contained four eggs of 

 a beautiful buff color spotted and 

 splashed with blackish brown. The nests 

 are composed of grass rounded into a 

 shallow and frail nest. Birds like the 

 spotted sandpiper whose young run about 

 after the parent a few hours after hatch- 

 ing, need but a frail nest to keep the 

 e°"p's from rolling about too much, while 

 hatching. Compare the nest of this bird 

 with that of the substantial mud structure 



NEST AND EGGS OF FIELD SPARROW. 

 (Spizella pusilla.) 



Built among tufts of growing orchard grass so 

 that when the young are hatched they may have 

 plenty of shade. 



example is soon followed by his fellow 

 friends. As J approach a nearby swamp 

 a large male red-winged blackbird 

 alights in the topmost branch of a 

 smooth alder, and with a spread of wings 



NEST OF THE HOODED WARBLER. 



( Sylvania mitrata.) 



A warbler showing flycatcher traits, often diving 

 into the air after a passing insect. 



of the robin whose voting occupy the nest 

 for many days. 



The "teeters," as the sandnipers are 

 commonly called by the country boy, on 

 account of their habit of continually bob- 



