154 OREGON GROUND ROBIN. 



bush, usually by the side of a stream. Five 

 eggs is the number generally laid. 



OREGON GROUND ROBIN (Pepilo oregonus, 

 Bell). This quaint restless bird is very abundant, 

 from the coast to the summit of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and is also very common on Vancouver 

 Island. They arrive in April and May, and fre- 

 quent dark woods 1 and thick tangled underbrush. 

 Stealthy and shy, its habit is to hide, but a love 

 of hearing its own ugly voice invariably betrays 

 the place of concealment. The cry for it is not a 

 song, but something like the squall of the cat-bird 

 conies from the most unlikely places, often 

 startling one into a momentary belief in ghouls 

 and wood demons. I found a nest, after days of 

 tiresome waiting and watching ; it was placed on 

 the top of a stump, round which young shoots 

 had grown like a fringe, completely hiding it from 

 the sharpest eye ; the birds descended to it 

 through the twigs, that formed a vegetable tube. 

 Not a neat nest, but clumsily put together with 

 varied materials, lined with hair, and in it six 



eggs. 



GREY-CROWNED FINCH (Leucosticte teplirocotis, 

 Swainson). My first acquaintance with this very 

 rare and beautiful bird was made on the summit 

 of the Cascade Mountains, on a hill we named 



