524 LAND BIRDS 



woods and the silver cadence of the mountain brook, he 

 is '^ an April poem that God has dowered with wings." 



He is seldom or never alone, but travels with a merry 

 band of his fellows, from the southern valleys where he 

 feeds in winter to the northern mountain heights. There 

 among the pine forests where the yellow lichen clings 

 to the rugged trunks, he will build his nest and rear 

 his brood. And now you discover the reason for his 

 greenish yellow coloring ; for, as he flits here and 

 there among the lichen tufts, picking up bits to line or 

 decorate his nest, you are struck with the way in which 

 he becomes invisible. So, in cases where the lichens 

 are used in the nest-building, it is difficult to tell whether 

 or not the bird is brooding. The lichens are seldom 

 used, however, unless the nest is placed in a fir or 

 pine tree. When built in a willow, rootlets and finely 

 shredded strips of bark take its place. Whether this 

 material is chosen because of convenience or with an 

 eye to protective coloring no one may say, but I believe 

 it is only a matter of whatever is most easily obtained. 

 Both sexes assist in the nest-building and in gathering 

 material, which is moulded into shape by a turning 

 about of the bird's body after the manner of the black- 

 headed grosbeak. The only nest I hav^e ever seen was 

 entirely inaccessible, in the top of a fir tree at least 

 thirty-five feet from the ground. The tree stood on the 

 side of a canon, and it was possible from a point above 

 it and a hundred feet away, by means of field glasses, to 

 watch the birds at work. But at this distance one 

 could only observe in a very unsatisfactory degree and 



