A NOTABLE QUARTETTE 297 



tongue. Early one morning a few days later I heard a 

 brilliant vocalist descanting from the top of a pump in 

 a wide field among the foothills. How wildly his tones 

 rang out on the crisp morning air ! I seemed to be 

 suddenly transported to another part of the world, his 

 style of music was so new, so foreign to my ear. My 

 pencilled notes say of this particular minstrel : " Xery 

 nmsical — great variety of notes — clear, loud, rinirino- 

 — several runs slightly like Carolina's — others suo-a-est 

 Bewick's — but most of them sui generis.'''' 



Let us return to the first rock wren I saw. He was 

 exceedingly shy, scurrying off to a more distant perch — 

 another stone — as I approached. Sometimes he would 

 run down among the bushes and rocks like a mouse, 

 then glide to the top of another stone, and fling his pert 

 little aria at the intruder. It was interesting to note 

 that he most frequently selected for a singing perch the 

 top of a high, pointed rock where he could connnand a 

 view of his surroundings and pipe a note of warning to 

 his mate at the approach of a supposed enemy. Almost 

 every conspicuous rock on the acclivity bore evidence of 

 having been used as a lookout by the little sentinel. 



This wren is well named, for his home is amonf^- the 

 rocks, in the crannies and niches of which his mate 

 hides her nest so effectually that you must look loner for 

 it, and even after the most painstaking search you may 

 not be able to find it. The little husband helps to lead 



