274 BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 



ward, I concluded to profit by their example, and setting a 

 match to a few dry leaves and shreds of birch-bark, upon 

 which I piled green hemlock boughs, I soon had a relief, 

 which was both complete and agreeable; the hemlock giv- 

 ing off a most delightful fragrance, as well as an abundance 

 of smoke, in combustion. For a radius of several rods 

 around me my minute tormentors were obliged to flee; and 

 on a bed of moss surrounded by the delicate and odorous 

 little twin-flower (that beauty of the northern parts of both 

 the Old World and the New, so greatly admired by, as well 

 as named after, the great Linnaeus), I continued my obser- 

 vations in peace. For a while I watch a pair of little Yel- 

 low-backed Blue Warblers, tugging at a bunch of so-called 

 long-green moss — alias usnea — hanging from the dead limb 

 of a tall hemlock; but I am soon diverted by the near 

 approach of a Black-throated Green Warbler, hopping 

 about very nervously, her mouth full of small, green lai'vce. 

 Understanding the sign full well, I am all attention, and the 

 bird seems equally attentive to me. For some time she 

 dallies and delays, but the knowledge of hungry little 

 mouths overcomes the parent's hesitation, and in a more or 

 less zigzag line, now behind the thick branches and now in 

 plain sight, she soon reaches the nest; which, behold ! is on 

 the limb of a young hemlock, just above my head. " So near 

 and yet so far!" full well applies to bird-nesting. Not a 

 few birds deserve but little sympathy in the loss of their 

 nests — they are such witches at hiding them away! No 

 time to lose. I hug the tree and scramble to the nest, some 

 twenty feet from the ground, a few feet from the trunk, and 

 where the limb sends out several small boughs. The founda- 

 tion of the structure is of fine shreds of bark of the white 

 birch, fine dry twigs of the hemlock, bits of fine grass, 

 weeds, and dried rootlets, intermixed with usnea, and lined 



