SOME MAINE FRIENDS. 



Last July, while Coming down a mountain siele, I passed a small 

 thicket; and, happening to look at it I saw a Loggerhead Shirke sitting 

 on a branch, not more than four feet from me. I stopped, and 

 the bird then flew noiselessly away. I easily distinguished him from 

 "Lanius borealis" by the absence of wavy bars on the breast and by a 

 line across the forehead at the base of the bill. This was my first 

 experience with the Loggerhead, though I had seen the commoner 

 Northern Shrike or "Butcher-bird" before. 



In a dense growih of alders, bushes, and small cedars bordering a 

 stream I saw several interesting birds. Among these the Golden- 

 crowned Kinglet, Woodcock and Wilson Warbier deserve mention. 

 The Wilson Warbier first attracted my attention by its sharp and per- 

 sistent chipping, The bird hopped about near me fearlessly, and I 

 recognized it by the yellow body and black band on the crown. The 

 damp bed of the stream furnished a feeding ground for the Woodcocks 

 and I frequently saw them there at work. Of the Golden-crowned 

 Kinglet I caught only a fleeting glimpse. 



In the pine woods we find everywhere the white-throated Sparrow, 

 or "Peabody-bird." This fat sociable sparrow is seen sometimes 

 singly, sometimes in flocks. As a rule they do not sing much, but 

 their call note "chink", so well likened by Mr. Bickwell to the sound 

 Of a marble cutter's chisel, is most frequently heard. 



Purple Finches, Redstarts, and Cedar wax-wings are frequent visitors 

 about the house. The Purple Finches arrive in flocks, have a sociable 

 talk in the tree-tops, and then disappear. One pair of cedar-birds al- 

 ways nests on our grounds. In 1902 and 1903 they built in a neighbor- 

 ing poplar, but this year the nest was placed in a hedge. Seeing one 

 of the birds always perched on an overhead telegraph wire I concluded 

 the nest must be in the hedge. It was finely concealed, and I would 

 never have found it and the four speckled eggs but for a couple of tell- 

 tale straws, which protruded through one side of the hedge from the 

 bottom of the nest. 



About the same time I also found another Cedar-bird's nest, but this 

 was placed far out on a long branch of a solitary pine. The parent 

 birds saw me Standing near and at first did not venture to approach 

 the nest and feed their young ones. But when they finally did, they 



