104 WAKE-ROBIN 



birds, especially the creepers and nuthatches, have 

 many of the habits of the Picidce^ but lack their 

 powers of bill, and so are unable to excavate a nest 

 for themselves. Their habitation, therefore, is al- 

 ways second-hand. But each species carries in some 

 soft material of various kinds, or, in other words, 

 furnishes the tenement to its liking. The chicka- 

 dee arranges in the bottom of the cavity a little 

 mat of a light felt-like substance, which looks as if 

 it came from the hatter's, but which is probably 

 the work of numerous worms or caterpillars. On 

 this soft lining the female deposits six speckled eggs. 



I recently discovered one of these nests in a most 

 interesting situation. The tree containing it, a 

 variety of the wild cherry, stood upon the brink of 

 the bald summit of a high mountain. Gray, time- 

 worn rocks lay piled loosely about, or overtoppled 

 the just visible byways of the red fox. The trees 

 had a half-scared look, and that indescribable wild- 

 ness which lurks about the tops of all remote moun- 

 tains possessed the place. Standing there, I looked 

 down upon the back of the red-tailed hawk as he 

 flew out over the earth beneath me. Following 

 him, my eye also took in farms and settlements and 

 villages and other mountain ranges that grew blue 

 in the distance. 



The parent birds attracted my attention by ap- 

 pearing with food in their beaks, and by seeming 

 much put out. Yet so wary were they of revealing 

 the locality of their brood, or even of the precise 

 tree that held them, that I lurked around over an 



