46 



THE OSPREY. 



usual architectural style of the vireos, it was sus- 

 pended by the brim. It was made of grayish weed 

 fibers, lined with fine dried grasses, and ornamented 

 irregularly with flakes of white gossamer. It had 

 evidently been finished only recently, as it contained 



THE BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 

 (Two males above and female below.) 



FROM THE PAINTING BY LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES. 



no eggs. A week later I rambled to the haunts of 

 the Vireo, and with a woman and a little boy who 

 wanted to see a bird's nest, cautiously approached 

 the site of the sheltered home and gently parted the 

 intervening bushes. The mother bird was at home, 

 and upon my mind there was impressed a pretty pic- 

 ture. She crouched lightly in her woodsy sitting- 

 room ; but not caring to forsake her treasures even 

 at our intrusion, she turned almost upon one side 

 and remained with her charge, glancing at us inquir- 

 ingly over her shoulder, in a position very similar to 

 that of a quadruped lying upon one side and looking 

 at an object behind it. Small as the nest was, she 

 did not fill the cavity, and there was room for her to 

 turn lightly without endangering her eggs. Very 

 attractive indeed was this wildwood home, pre- 

 sided over by its gentle, half-hesitating mistress, 

 who seemed to understand that we meant her no 



harm and yet who dreaded to remain in the presence 

 of inquisitive strangers standing within four feet of 

 her Presently she flitted from the nest, and screened 

 by the adjacent foliage she uttered her characteristic 

 scolding note, a syllable sounding like the sound of 

 pa in the word pair, the syllable being repeated 

 many times as her solicitude increased. Not 

 caring to prolong her distress, we withdrew from 

 the spot and left her in undisturbed possession 

 of her home. 



On a recent morning I formed the acquaint- 

 ance of the little Winter Wren. The visitor had 

 taken quarters in a brush heap in the edge of 

 town, and when I chanced to call upon him soon 

 after sunrise he was humming his matutinal 

 satisfaction at being so comfortably circum- 

 stanced. My attention was drawn to the per- 

 former by a slender thread of silvery song, seem- 

 ingly from a voice farther away, reminding me 

 of the crooning of the Catbird or the Brown 

 Thrasher late in summer. The musician was 

 restless, for the song came from one part of the 

 pile and then from another, each performance 

 being a gush of subdued ecstacy, scarcely audible 

 to the eager listener. It was a new song to my 

 ear, and one of the finest I had ever heard from 

 any feathered soloist, softly sweet, touching, and 

 sustained, though low and unaffected, in perfect 

 harmony with the browned leaves of the late 

 October vegetation. 



There was a suggestiveness about it, however, 

 and when after cautious ogling I caught sight of 

 the diminutive musician, I was not surprised to 

 see a Wren, turning to right and left and whisk- 

 ing his short tail over his leaf-brown back. Turn- 

 ing my glass upon him as I caught glimpses of 

 him through the interstices of twigs and leaves, 

 I could note the line of dingy white running 

 through his eye and ending abruptly back of the 

 temple or ear. The surprising feature of his 

 singing was its unaffected execution, for never 

 lifting his head and continuing to hop here and there 

 in the lower story of the heap, he repeatedly uttered 

 that peal of silvery song, in some instances singing 

 five seconds, though the song usually lasted about 

 three seconds. When perched where he felt hidden 

 from my observation, he seemed more composed and 

 sang with greater regularity, uttering from five to 

 seven songs per minute. 



This particular performer was a most impassioned 

 songster, for in the execution of his song he would 

 crouch and expand his plumage in fluffy disarrange- 

 ment, turning obliquely to right or left or moving 

 sidewise upon his perch, even lowering his head in 

 the middle of those rapturous measures. The most 

 peculiar movement of his delivery was the vibrating 

 of his tail, for it seemed to me that every note was 

 accompanied by a movement of the short appendage, 

 and as the song was composed chiefly of demi-semi- 



